Broken Blade
by maximorph1
Summary: One minute, he's underground facing the most dangerous foe he's faced in years, the next, he's in the middle of a field. Strange, but he can work with it, only to get involved in another fight when he's already half-dead, gets killed but still won't die as some red-head decides he'd make a good servant. Too bad he's a bit more broken then she thinks.
1. Chapter 1

_._

_._

_What if you could change the world_

_But be altered in turn_

_Would you risk it all for that chance?_

_What if you failed_

_Every time without exception_

_Would you still continue?_

_What if you kept succeeding_

_But not in the way you wanted_

_Would you ever give up?_

Chapter 1

The surrounding area could be best described as 'peaceful'. A small unclaimed region in the middle of the night composed of old trees and tall grass commonly found in the Asian region of the world. A few animals and insects would walk through the clearing, but the area was mostly clear of life. Not a single sentient soul was anywhere near this unremarkable region. Though there was a city several miles off to the north, no one felt the need to travel through the region at two in the morning.

So, of course, no one witnessed the sudden change occur. Every animal, every insect, and even the trees seemingly went still. As one, the animals and bugs turned to gaze upon a certain point in the midst of the land. An unremarkable, completely ordinary point that had never occupied anything of note in all of history, until now.

With a thunderous noise that would have deafened a man within a football stadium and a flash of light that would have blinded any who gazed in the direction before even comprehending what color the light had been a great change came upon the world.

The very air condensed and collapsed within a tiny bubble before violently exploding (though lacking any pyrotechnics) and knocking down every tree, bush, and blade of grass within fifty feet from the epicenter. Any creatures still alive and able to flee did so with all haste.

In distant lands, great lords of power all found themselves turning in the direction of this phenomenon, though none knew the reason why, nor had enough time to identify the location of this strange feeling. For, as suddenly as this assault upon reality began, it ended to reveal the strangest of sights.

On the ground, burning and bleeding lay a man covered completely in gore. Most of it did not belonged to the him, for while his injuries were terrible, they were not the major source of the pools of blood and body parts sprayed about the newly created clearing. The vast majority of the bits of flesh came from dozens of individuals, all torn to shreds in the fight with a foe no mere mortal should have had to face. Yet, they had gone forth anyways for one reason or another. Truly, it had to have been a mighty foe to have slain the great gathering.

So, it should be noted the strangeness that one man got out so cleanly (in a relative sense) when the others had not. Was he special? Was he lucky? Perhaps a combination of both factored into it, perhaps not.

To an observer, the man would have looked remarkably strange. His skin was tanned, but his hair was gray. He wore a black sleeveless vest made of some sort of leather whilst wearing black pants of a lighter material and shoes that were covered in metal at the toes. While these were certainly oddities, especially with the cuts and tears leaking blood, these things did not compare to three anomalies upon this man.

One was his right arm, upon his shoulder and forearm was armor of all things. Nothing more than a simple shoulder guard and vambrace made of steel, but they were covered in strange markings, as well as countless nicks in the metal. His hand was covered in a black leather glove with small bits of metal covering the back of the hand and fingers. Nothing that would interfere with the hand's natural dexterity, but it would make for a mean punch against flesh.

The other arm, however, was wrapped up completely in a strange red sling strapped to his chest with black beads wrapped around said red cloth. The arm was so wrapped up, that it completely covered every inch of flesh while completely hiding the left hand inside, fingers and all, to form a shapeless end to the limb.

It was clear, however that this was not some sort of bandaging around a broken limb. Even though the left arm was wrapped up in the red cloth, it was clear to any who observed that the left arm was thin to the point of having little to no meat on it, unlike the right arm which was thick to the point of almost bulging muscles. In addition, the left limb was definitely shorter than the right. That left arm had been useless for a long time now, decayed and atrophied to the point of unnecessary baggage for the man that had to be bound to his chest in order for him to fight.

The final oddity, however, was the sword grasped in his hand. In a modern age of guns and missiles, it should be considered strange to have such a thing. The best word to describe the sword is 'beautiful'. The blade was elegant, even with the blood and body bits covering it. Solid steel nearly four feet long with gorgeous marks upon the blade near the hilt, written runes from a forgotten time attached to a finely crafted guard of blue and yellow and hilt covered in holy icons. A sword this beautiful should never have been used for battle, yet this man had done just that.

That he survived might indicate that there was more to the blade... or the skill of the man, if not both.

As the man lay there, he contemplated the impossible task he had just performed. He had aided in killing one of 'Them', he had brought about the death one of the deadliest threats on the planet and survived. He and over a hundred others had charged against the great evil, and he had somehow killed the creature and survived.

Honestly, he should feel elated, he should feel 'Alive'. Instead, he just felt tired. Then again, that wasn't all too surprising considering what had just happened. How many of the others survived, he could not say, but the silence surrounding him was too ominous. If there were any others, he expected to hear them make some sort of noise, anything from a ragged breath to cries of pain. Instead, he was only able to hear his own breathing, and nothing more.

Opening his eyes, he found himself gazing into the sky, idly noting the stars before the full implications hit him. The sky? He had been hundred of feet underground moments ago. How the heck was he outside all of a sudden. With a groan of pain, he slowly turned his head from side to side taking in the scenery. A open space of land, one that seemed... familiar to him somehow, but he had other concerns at the moment, such as how in all that was mysterious did he end up above ground?

The questions halted for a moment as he felt his left arm sent a massive surge of pain at him, almost blanking his mind for a moment before subsiding to a more familiar level of pain. "Ah, sorry." The man said as he rubbed the invalid arm with his good one. "And thank you." The pulsing pain seemed to lessen for a mere moment before returning to its former levels. As ever, his greatest shame and his greatest accomplishment would forever remind him of its existence.

And occasionally come to his aide.

Groaning, he found himself losing a battle to remain awake. He had overextended himself badly in the conflict, exhausting himself mentally, physically, and magically. His circuits burned as fiercely as his muscles while the great grandmother of migraines assaulted his head. Yet, even with his exhaustion, he would not allow himself to remain vulnerable. Alone, in a location far different from where he should be, the man knew that he was in trouble and needed to move despite his body's protests. Rest could come later, safety came first. Holding back moans of agony, he pushed him body up onto his feet on legs that threatened to give at any moment.

No matter.

Looking around, he knew he was far from his initial location as he spotted a the lights of a city or town off in the distance He didn't know where he was currently, but it wasn't anywhere near when he was supposed to be. That 'Thing' would not have left any civilizations near it, so he must be lost. Bleeding tired, in a rather literal sense with his current blood loss and dwindling stamina levels, he began walking towards the city. He didn't even notice the gore behind him corroding away rapidly to dust to be blown away in the gentle breeze. All he could do was keep walking forward.

As he traveled, he felt some sort of nostalgia to it, but only in the barest of senses. It wasn't so much a recalling of a familiar place as much as a feeling of recognition to the type of architecture.

Closer and closer he continued his trek towards the city, making it all the way from unclaimed lands to an actual park with trimmed grass, concrete pavement, benches, decorative trees, and bushes tastefully placed for visitors to enjoy. It was there that his stamina tanked out, dropping him onto his belly in pure exhaustion.

Tired beyond measure from walking a mile or two with his wounds, he still refused to stop until he crawled under a thick bush before allowing himself to give into the demands of his body. He closed his eyes and fell instantly into dreamless sleep. As this happened, he finally released his death grip on his sword which then shattered and vanished in golden motes.

For all that it seemed like an eternity to walk to the city, his sleep felt no longer than a blink of an eye. The first thing he noted was that it was either early day or late afternoon from the orange tint in the sky. The second thing he noted was the sickeningly sweet scent that had awoken him. Whatever it was that was the cause of the scent was soaking in magic. Nauseous from the smell, he carefully pushed himself up so that his head burst above the bush and focused on the origin.

Off just a little bit of the park was a young couple walking together. A date? Perhaps, but the female... she was not human, not by a long shot. By the feel of the magic, she had some sort of affinity towards corruption. Cautiously, he lowered himself into the bush and held out his good hand. "Trace On." With that one phrase uttered in a ragged voice, his sword reappeared in his hand.

He noted that the female's head turned slightly in his direction before turning back towards her companion. Silently he waited, his hand gripping his blade tightly whilst his senses were at their maximum. He didn't know what she was, but considering what he had just gone through, his paranoia was well founded

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"Please go out with me." Those words meant the world to Hyoudou Issei. A confession from a girl, a heartfelt plea from the beautiful Amano Yuuma to be with him. Possessing long silky hair, a slender body, and a voice of an angel, Issei swore he would make a thousand offerings to the gods for such a creature to fall in love with him. At first he thought it was a prank, nothing more than a small cruelness for a bored teen, or perhaps a penalty game as a result of losing some competition. After all, Hyoudou Issei was surely one who was meant to be alone forever.

Yet, Amano Yuuma hadn't laughed at his acceptance, she didn't abandon him as soon as the day ended. Instead, the two of them had hung out at school, shared lunches together, studied together, and as of today, went on their first date. It had gone perfectly, as far as Issei could tell, Yuuma had enjoyed the whole experience. She never lost that smile on her face throughout the whole thing.

It was here at this park that Issei was wrapping up the date. The park was a bit out of the way, but it was a well known location for couples. It was here that Issei hoped to get the legendary 'Goodbye Kiss' from Yuuma before the two of them would go their separate ways for the day, holding the precious memories tightly and anticipating the next date. Upon arriving at the park, Issei couldn;t hold back his smile as he watched Yuuma skip ahead of him slightly. Yes, today was the greatest day of his life.

"Hey Issei," Yuuma spoke up, looking shyly away from him, with a small blush on her face. "Can you listen to my request?"

Yes! Here it comes, the grand finale of the day that he would forever etch into his soul, never to be forgotten. His first kiss, and on the eve of his first date. "Wh-what is you're request?" Issei spoke with a touch of nervousness. Oh, he knew what she wanted, and he was more than willing to grant it but still, his heart was pounding loud and fast. He liked to think he was fairly knowledgeable about these sorts of things, but the fact was that this was his first experience. How could he not be nervous?

"Would you mind dying right now?" She asked.

...Eh?

"Um, I'm sorry," Issei replied scratching his chin in confusion, "Could you please repeat that?" Surely he had just misheard her. After all, Amano Yuuma was a pure angel, there was no way that she could say something like 'Would you mind dying right now?'. His mind must have hallucinated that, surely she must have asked for that kiss, or at least a second date. He'd more than willingly settle for a mere walking her home while holding hands. She was a shy girl, maybe she just mumbled or something. Yes, yes, that was what happened. Reality could not be so cruel-

"Could you please die." She told him sweetly, as if she had just asked him for something simple. Turning to face him, she gave him a lovely smile before sprouting large black wings, like an oversized crow had latched onto her back and stretched them out for display. With a single flap of those wings she was in the air, hovering about five feet off the ground.

"It was fun. The short time I spent with you. It was like playing house with a little child." she said, still speaking sweetly even as she trampled upon his reality. Yet her eyes were completely cold when she looked at him; 'disgust' and 'despise' written clearly upon them as though she was looking upon a large cockroach.

Issei's mind was already shutting down as he took this all in. His worst fears that he was being used had been confirmed and then 'dialed up to eleven' above and beyond anything he could have ever thought of. What came out of his mouth however was not a denunciation or denial of her words.

"You know, when I compared you to an angel, I didn't mean literally."

That got her to chuckle, "Fallen Angel" She corrected. "I'm a Fallen Angel." Raising her hand, a shaft of pure light appeared. She then raised it up in a preparatory throwing motion, making Issei realize that the 'rod' was actually a spear. So, she really was going to kill him. While one part of him was screaming, whether from terror or heart break was impossible to tell, another part of him was calmly noticing that her eyes were widening in surprise for some reason.

Said reason turned out to be a black and red blur slamming into her at high speed sending her flying into a tree so hard that stars entered her eyes for a moment. From there, Issei beheld a sight that would be embedded in his soul until his dying day.

Before him something landed, the motion was so natural, and yet so elegant that it made Issei swear he was dreaming. One foot in front of the other, sword swung to the side in an armored fist, the sunlight bouncing off the metal making it look like a portrait of a hero. With hair the color of steel and skin tanned brown giving him an exotic look whist wearing pure black cloth except on his left side where it blared in brilliant blood red it was as if the world had decided that Hyuodou Issei was worth sending a demigod to protect or something.

More importantly, something about him seemed to call to the boy, a call of familiarity, of friendship, of rivalry, and of greatness unbound. For some reason, it made Issei's hand itch just looking at the man.

"Run."

"...What?" Issei asked, unsure if he heard this mysterious man speak.

No time for a repeat of the order, the red clad man charged at Yuuma, the ground exploding as he leaped forward. Unfortunately, for the man Issei, was frozen, still in too much shock to actually understand the full extent of what was happening. So he stood there and watched what would be the last event of his life (as a human).

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What the hell was this?! Who the hell was he?! How the hell did she end up slamming into a tree?! The fallen angel who had gone by the name of Amano Yuuma, but possessed the name Raynare, had these questions and many more explode through her head even as she forced herself to her feet. "Damn yoooooou." She hissed at the figure charging her. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she gazed upon his left arm held in a sling before summoning a spear of light. She didn't know what was up with that arm, but she instinctively loathed it.

She launched her projectile at him just as he exploded towards, a part of her mind noted he was incredibly fast for a human, while another parted noted with pure satisfaction that her spear would still hit him clearly right about-

What the hell?! How did a mere human deflect her spear of light like that?! No more time for questions, the man was already upon her swinging that sword of his just nicking her with that blade hurt her, but she did not have time to contemplate whether or not it was a holy blade when the next attack came from overhead.

Slashing down to the ground with a second swing he slammed her to the ground like a lowly animal. Growling in rage, Raynare summoned a new spear and began her own attack. Centuries as a fallen one, a slayer of angels and devils alike, a being on a higher level of existence than a mere human, it should have been an obvious outcome and a one sided fight now that she was no longer surprised.

Slash

"Geck! Agh" jumping back to try to get some room the fallen angel quickly glanced at her stomach. The sonofabitch had just slashed her right. Twitching an eyebrow in anger, she threw a salvo of piercing attacks in a pattern that had killed three devils and an angel before. Each thrust of her spear was calmly deflected while the man advanced closer and closer towards her, completely at ease with her attack.

She tried a different pattern consisting of slashes at his limbs, but her opponent easily matched her attacks and nicked her time and again. Several times the attacks would have been lethal if she had been just the slightest bit slower. Dammit, this human clearly knew how to use that sword of his. That left side of his was too well protected by long experience.

There are stories of battles, certain famed duels said to have lasted for hours, perhaps days even. Where the clashing of blades and dances of spears create cascades of percussion sounds. Such things can only occur, however, either when two masters of the martial and deadly arts clash or when one or more of the participants are near immortal. Neither of those options would occur today. For all that Raynare believed humans to be beneath her, she was not a warrior, but a manipulator. Her opponent, however, was born for battle. Literally.

Desperate to get back in better position, Raynare swung her arms out wide, risking leaving herself open as she summoned two spears at different angles, firing them simultaneously to force him to back up and allow her to spread her wings.

Grinding her teeth together, she immediately flew higher. Damn inferior being, how dare he assault and humiliate her. If the others ever heard about this, she'd be on the biting of of remarks for a thousand years. Stretching out her arms, a dozen spears of light appeared in mid air, preparing to impale the wretched creature in one shot.

"Die." She called out coldly before launching her spears. She was prepared for the sight of that gray haired man to die, impaled by her weapons. Instead, she watched him dodge all but one of the spears, with that last one being knocked away with casual ease.

"I am the bone of my sword." The man spoke, not in declaration, in plain fact. That such a kind of statement spoken would confuse anyone upon hearing it... unless one knew the reference of course.

"Tch," She clicked her teeth in frustration before shaking her head. Calm, calm, she needed to relax. She was being reckless, yes, that was why he was able to face her. It was clear this stranger knew how to use a sword, even when injured. She just needed to be more precise. Carefully, she crafted a special spear of light, one that possessed the properties of 'Hunt' and 'Evade' into it. Yes, much better now. No more of this flailing like an uncouth berserker, it was time to display elegance and grace and- OH MY GOD!

Even as a spike of pain shot through her as she thought of 'that holy name', Raynare was forced to evade as the swordsman had thrown that sword of his far too fast for any mere human to accomplish. If she had been just a bit slower, that blade would have pierced her completely. ...Well, that was unexpected, but now that he's thrown his sword away he's completely vulnerab-GAH! Barely evading in time again, she glared down at the human to see him drawing his arm back to throw a third time at her. Quickly glancing up, she just had time to see a small bit of golden shards dispersing in the air where the second thrown sword had gone.

"...A Sacred Gear?" she asked curiously. She had heard a priest not too long ago talking about an old project of his and the mention of a Sacred Gear with properties like that. Something about making swords or something like that. '_Well, if that's the case..._' She mused even as she threw her own spear in response to his previous assault. '_Then that will mean I'd take out two Sacred Gears in the same day_.' She thought with the smallest amount of glee. Maybe she'd even get promoted by that damn Azazel. At least Kokabiel would support her ascension through the ranks for it. With satisfaction, she watched as her spear shot forwards.

In the back of her mind, this whole thing made sense. This strange man must have sensed Issei's Sacred Gear as well as the fact that she was a Fallen Angel. In all probability, this one must have faced at least one more of her kind to be able to hold his own so well against her. But then, it wasn't like she was actually going all out. That would be a mark of shame she'd never tolerate

In response to her thrown spear, rather than attempt to dodge the weapon, the man released his sword and snapped his arm across faster than the eye could blink. It took the fallen one a moment to realize what had just happened. Rather than block or evade, the man had caught the spear with his one good arm. To compound the insane move, he then flipped the weapon around and threw it right back at her. Though it was no trouble at all for her to dissolve the weapon long before it would have ever hurt her, she felt her face heating up in anger once more.

"Then," Raynare snarled, "How about this?" Flapping her wings, she rose higher and high, far above this madman's ability to throw with any level of deadliness. Once more, she summoned her array of spears, resisting the urge to wipe the sweat off of her brow. A hundred, no, a thousand of them would be enough to bury him under the barrage.

"Heeeeh, so it was you Raynare sending up all that energy." a new feminine voice broke in halting the assault. Turning to the side, the fallen angel beheld three of her kin; two males, one female, and all three of them were quite familiar with her. After all, four of them had been scheming together of centuries.

"Born from Fire, Filled with Steel" the human chanted upon seeing the reinforcements, whatever the heck those words were supposed to mean. It certainly wasn't like any spell the fallen had heard of, not to mention there was a lack of magic gathering around him as he spoke.

"...Are you actually having problems here?" a tall, and semi-busty fallen angel asked. "Seriously?"

"I'm busy Kalawarner," Raynare hissed. "I've had enough playing with this one."

It would be incorrect to say the man was ignoring the three new arrivals, but it wouldn't wrong to say that he wasn't all there at moment. For a moment, his mind twirled in darkness, his left arm aching anew as he loosened the locks that kept the doom at bay. The left side of his face began losing a bit of color, turning a shade paler the then normally tanned tone, while a small black vessel began crawling up the side of his neck from the base of his shoulder. Not that the fallen angels could tell at this point.

With a single sweep of his arm, he fired his own array of weapons at Raynare, startling her so much that her projections all shattered under the loss of her mental control.

"Dammit Raynare, what's taking so long?" One of the three new arrivals demanded. "It's just a worthless human, hurry up and kill him." This one, the youngest of the lot, clearly had not just seen a man counter her own efforts.

"It's not like I haven't been trying," She replied. "This one's putting up a fight, and it looks like he's used to facing our kind." Mentally, though she was grateful for their arrival, she knew that her comrades would at least distract this one long enough for her to kill him. "Both the humans there have Sacred Gears." She informed them, noting the hungry look in their eyes. Their ambitions were painfully obvious, but Raynare knew something these idiots didn't.

For all their bluster, they were all far weaker than herself, and if she was having problems with this man, then it was all too obvious of what would soon happen. Hey, just because she worked and conspired with them didn't mean she actually cared for their lives or anything. Canon fodder was canon fodder for a reason. Besides, if they all...conveniently died, then her humiliation would be completely covered.

"I am made of a thousand blades, broken and forged ever anew"" Was it just her, or did this new wave of swords appear faster than the last? Perhaps, but she knew for a fact that those black lines crawling up the side of his neck, looking like pulsing black veins as well as the patches of white skin were definitely new. Perhaps that was the price he had to pay for his Sacred Gear. Either way, it was a weakness, one that she would capitalize-**just as soon as he stopped firing all those damned swords.**

"ahahahaha" Donaseek, the only male Fallen Angel present dodging sword after sword while firing in retaliation. "This guy is great." The damned battle maniac was having far too much entertainment with someone trying to kill him.

"Focus" Kalawarner, a lovely looking brunette with raven black wings, reprimanded, nearly clipped by three different swords. "He's surprisingly difficult for a human." Understatement of the year was far was Raynare was concerned. Humans weren't supposed to be this difficult even with Sacred Gears. Most of them could never use more than a fraction of the Gear's potential. This one, however, decided to buck the trend.

Round and round they flew attacking and being attacked in turn. Despite their bravado, they were tiring, as none of them had been angels created for the purpose of combat. The may have learned several tricks over the course of their lives to fight, but they were ultimately untrained, inexperienced, and out of shape (so to speak)

Today, they suddenly found themselves tested harshly against a mere human who had the most insane ability they had ever seen. Swords upon swords upon swords upon swords

It was only due to her flip that she noticed that her 'boyfriend' was still standing there like the slack jawed fool he was. Seriously, he should have run, he should have taken the opportunity to flee

"Mittelt," Reynare ordered, "Kill the other human, we'll take care of this one."

"On it." the youngest and weakest of the group replied

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He should be afraid, he should be terrified to the core from what he was seeing. Yet, far from afraid, he was in pure awe of the display. Why? Why did he not have that kind of ability? Such a selfish thought was merged with the emotion of pure glee at the epic level fight before him. It was only at the bottom of his emotional depth that fear lingered.

Something was wrong with him. Something was burning, or perhaps changed and he didn't know why. It shouldn't be like this. He should be running for the hills, he should be on the ground in denial. Instead, he felt an urge to...to... he couldn't put a word to what he wanted. To fight? To kill? To maim? To join? It was impossible to understand what he was feeling. Somehow, Issei felt like he was awake, like he had been drowsily sleeping all this time only to finally open his eyes slightly, and he had no idea why he felt that way.

It just had to do with that man, something about his existence was burning. A fire never ending, that's what it felt like. Somehow, it called to Issei, urging him to do...something. Challenge? Destroy? Aide? Words do not describe these alien emotions and urges. All the boy knows is that he wants to do more, to be more. _He wants to go upwards and forwards, to take reality and shatter it in his fist. He wishes to fly to the heavens and kick the door in. More, more, it is not enough to crawl like a worm. __**He is greater, stronger, born to stand above and beyond all others and gaze down upon them and burn them.**_

Unconsciously, he raised his left arm in preparation to do...whatever it was that called to him when-

"Where are you going human?" a female's voice taunted him directly behind him, breaking the flow, breaking the call. Slowly turning, Issei found himself to be less than three feet away from a young-looking blond female fallen angel. She might have looked rather cute in her black dress with the black bow in her hair, but that smile on her face destroyed any appeal about her. It was a hungry and malicious smile belonging to wolves in front of sheep.

"Ah, I remember you. You're Issei." Her smile grew wider. "The poor boy who fell in love with Raynare. Ahahaha" She laughed maliciously. "Tell me, is she everything you wanted for a girlfriend you useless pig?

"Ah-ah" the young boy stammered, backing away from the lunatic.

"Ara, running away? Give it up already, it's pointless." Saying that, she fired a single spear of light so close to Issei's face that it nicked his chin, causing to bleed a single drop. "After all, you dared to profane nee-sama. So I'm going to kill you no-"

Issei blinked, not sure he had seen what he swore he had just witnessed. But no, he was definitely looking at a headless body standing there with everything above the neck blow off completely.

"W-what?" the boy asked still unable to comprehend the sudden and brutal decapitation before him. In denial of reality, the boy reached forth to touch the body still standing there without the head. The mere touch, however, destroyed whatever inhuman balance that had kept the corpse standing, causing it to fall over.

'_Oh God,'_ The boy thought before suddenly feeling his lunch coming up the wrong way through his throat. Brown and green emerged violently in chunks, burning his throat with acid and assaulting his sense of smell. From that moment on, Issei would never be able to eat salmon again, always associating it with this moment; the moment where he saw someone die for the first time. He almost blacked out, but somehow he kept his senses open as he watched the bravest, and more heroic action ever imagined being performed all around him whilst he emptied his stomach.

xxxxxxx

"Y-y-you bastard!" One of the females roared as the now headless fallen angel collapsed to the ground, her carcass dribbling the remnants of her blood onto the grass. The man paid no heed to her roar as the male Fallen Angel had somehow teleported right behind the vulnerable man and impaled him in the chest before leaping back from a newly created sword.

Smiling at the injury, Donaseek, taunted, "Aw, worried about your fellow humans? Well, try to stop this." He didn't care if one of his own died, all he wanted was to fight, and kill this man. Leaping back from a spinning attack, the fallen one struck back again and again, but noted that his foe was still going just as strong as ever, even with that gut wound. Truly, this was a good prey, but this wasn't enough, there had to be more. Despair, he needed to see despair in his prey's eyes. Oh, this one would never despair for his own life, of that, Donaseek was sure. But there are other ways of spreading hopelessness.

With a deceptively casual-like throw he sent a new spear right at Issei. Despite the pain, and despite the fact he was now missing his right lung, the gray haired man pushed himself to near inhuman speeds to deflect the attack. Yes! Just as Donaseek expected, this one was one of those bloody hero archetypes. He fired off another spear at the boy and sure enough, the gray-haired man deflected the attack as neat as you please while leaving himself vulnerable in the process. Raynare, always the fastest at picking up these sorts of things, fired off her own spears in tandum with Donaseek, except her spear was aimed at the man instead of Issei, nicking him badly on the side.

"Oi Oi, this isn't the time to worry about others." the Fallen Angels laughed. Again and again they fired spears of light and forced him to perform insane manuvering to protect the boy.

"Hey, Raynare," The male broke in, "Keep him occupied, he's mine!" He crowed as though victory was assured diving forward and ignoring the squawks of protests from the two annoyances.

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This could not continue, the man thought. The male of these 'angel' creatures was darting too fast now, taking advantage of his inhuman capabilities, darting left and right out of reach before taking an opening, whilst the other two were trying to kill the poor kid still laying on the ground dry heaving whatever he had left to eat. It was like trying to hit a bird in flight whilst dodging a swarm of hornets.

Luckily, he had met one particular individual who was perfect for slaying birds. It took a moment of concentration in between the attacks, but he saw his Seeing the small window of opportunity that occurred from their uncoordinated attacks, he tossed aside his favored sword for another. Calling it a katana would be incorrect. Normal katanas are about 60-90 centimeters long, this one was one and a half meters long.

This should have immediately tipped off the Fallen Angels of something strange. After all, such absurdly long blades should be gripped with a single hand. Yet, this figure, who somehow pulled this incredibly long blade from nowhere, was doing just that. It should be impossible; it would be impossible in fact, except one man had done it before.

A man met a few years ago, for only a brief spar before he was killed to birth a creature of shadow and death.

Sasaki Kojirou, was the name he was given. It wasn't his real name, his real name was long forgotten into the mists of time. There were no legends of this man, no songs or ballads about his exploits, not a single reliable record that he ever existed. The only account that came close to attributing to him was a single person's notation added in to an autobiography that only had the slightest similarities to the truth.

The truth was that 'Sasaki Kojirou', was a hermit who wanted to spend a lifetime honing his swordsmanship to the pinnacle. To that he focused on a seemingly impossible task, to take an ordinary blade and kill a swallow in midflight.

God alone knows how long it took for such a task, for a swallow instinctively knows when something is trying to kill it and can feel the air pressure preceding the blade long before the metal itself even came close to it and would evade with the swift agility born to the feathered sky dancers. But somehow he did it. This unknown and long forgotten hermit found a technique that was akin to slaying a god with mortal techniques, all for the sake of nailing a tiny, and incredibly agile bird.

The technique was a performance of three swings, to box in the bird and ensure that it cannot run. However, this does not mean that the three swings were performed one after the other, oh no, this skill is far greater than something as simple as that. As an epitome of skill, it involves slashing three times at the same time, as in when one swing occurs, so too the other two swings occur without even the small degrees of time in difference, breaking the laws of physics itself.

"Oi oi, what kind of blade is that?" The male 'angel' mocked upon seeing the blade. Yes, it was big, but it was also clumsy in a single arm. Only in fairy tales and video games is it possible to swing such a blade with ease. For a mere human, this was nothing more than pointless posing before his death.

The problem with that assumption was that this was no ordinary human, and despite the apparent evidence displayed earlier, this one made one fatal assumption. He assumed that he was facing a human. Instead, he was facing a magus, a human who broke the rules of reality to his will while walking with death at his side at all times.

Even as the fallen angel flew to the vulnerable left side with the crippled arm, the fallen angel was already in the one-armed man's range. What happened next was so fast that blinking the eye would have made the move invisible. Pivoting his body on one leg, the man swung at the fallen angel.

"Tsubame Gae-" He began to call out, but ultimately, the difference in ability kicked in before it could even be completed. Though the original creator of this skill was weaker, less than a third the strength in one arm compared to the current user, the fact was that such a blade and such a skill needs two arms for control. Attempting this attack broke his arm in three places.

Worse, what should have been three simultaneous strikes ended as a mere singular strike.

But, though it was only a single strike, less than a third of the true potential of the attack, it still cleaved the male 'angel' clean through from hip to shoulder.

"Eh?" Donaseek gasped out with his dying breath. He collapsed to the ground with a stunned expression frozen on his face. For all that he loved battle, the fact was that he had only ever belonged to the lowest levels of angels and fallen angels. Tainted by watching over humanity wage wars and fall in love with the epic clashes below, he had been a pale imitation of reality.

With the death of the male fallen angel, the balance had tipped in a new direction, but not in the expected manner.

The gray-haired man was dying. Between the battle with that 'Thing' underground before all this and these winged ones, the cumulative damage was too much. He could not heal himself fast enough or efficient enough to survive this fight. Yet, there was a sense of peace in that thought. A peace knowing that he had tried so hard and done his best, even when the world itself seemed to conspire against him from saving even a single life.

That said, he had no intention of going down without taking these ones with him. In the back of his mind, he swore he heard a familiar voice offering a bit of praise at the thought. A last stand, all he needed was a chain and a rock. Such a voice gave him his inspiration. He knew he had enough in him for one shot, the question was whether or not he had the strength to do it twice. Well, in the words of the one who inspired him, 'Life's a gamble, might as well take a chance at the dice.'

So with that, he brought forth one more weapon all too familiar to him.

"W-What is that?" Kalawarner asked her elder. "What is that?" How could she not be afraid. That weapon right there was pure demonic in nature, something right out of the ancient war. How the Fall did a human get something like that?

"A weapon." Raynare spoke cautiously. She'd be contemptuous about such a question but considering everything else that had gone on today, prudence was preferred. She did not that this man was not firing off salvo after salvo of weapons at her. Good it appeared that sacrificing two of her comrades had done enough to tire this human.

But then he had pulled out that red spear of his. Quite frankly, that was the most demonic weapon Raynare had ever seen before. That said, there was only one weapon, and two targets.

"What do we do?" Kalawarner asked her ally

"Wait." was the reply. Whatever trick was placed in this spear, Raynare needed to keep back.

"Gae-" The dying man hissed. Upon uttering that first word, the spear began to distort in his hands, becoming akin to a mirage or some optical illusion barely there yet taunting the eyes all the same. The blood lust that had permeated the air increased tenfold. It was suffocatingly thick for the two surviving fallen angels and Issei. "-BOLG!"

Rather than saying he threw the spear, it would be more accurate to say that the spear leaped out of his hand towards the two fallen angels. They didn't even have time to react before it had already arrived at its destination. The damned spear had moved so fast that Kalawarner had to take a moment to realize that the sharp pain in her chest and the sudden chill was from a sudden lack of her heart.

"W-wha-? H-How?" Was all she said before crumpling, falling to the earth like a stone. Just as the third fallen angel hit the ground, the man's sole remaining 'good' arm fell limp. Raynare had to be blind and dumb not to see that firing that spear had finished off his limb.

Now, with the deaths of her three companions, it was her dance. Cackling with mad glee at surviving where the others had not, her sanity not all that stable from mental shocks and accumulation of blood loss from earlier in the fight, she charged her stricken foe.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was not good, the price Gae Bolg demanded of him had been too much. A second shot was not possible. Right now, his right arm was blackening with necrosis, all feeling in the limb was gone and now hung uselessly at his side. His left arm was, of course, still in its sling, but throbbed painfully.

Splat.

Oh dear, the rot has gotten into his chest. His lungs are corroding away and his heart is rapidly running out of the ability to pump.

The boy was still there?! Mentally sighing, the man wondered if he had been this bad back in that fateful war years ago. No, he was distinctly sure that he had taken the chance to run when it first came up, even if it did result in getting his heart run through. Well, what kind of person, what kind of hero could he ever hope to be if he let that boy die? Keeping a wary eye on the lone remaining 'angel' creature, he began moving close enough to the boy to nudge him in the side.

When the boy didn't respond, he got a hard kick to the back

"Get up." The man command, bringing the boy back to reality. "You need to run."

"W-what is going on?" The boy asks "What is happening here?"

"No time, you need to run." The man kicks the boy aside as a spear nearly impales the both of them. "Run, now. Don't look back." He gives one last kick and sees the boy stand up and begin moving. "Run!" With that, he does not look back at the boy, but focused solely on the last enemy. The man has a strange purple dagger in his mouth where there wasn't a moment before. He faces Yuuma/Raynare with a calm expression. He's unable to use his arms, but he'll still fight regardless. The boy will live if he has anything to say about it.

Such were his thoughts as he was impaled by six spears of light.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Hyoudou Issei was many things, a pervert, a bit stupid, a klutz, and many more negative connotations, but there was one thing that Issei had as a virtue, he wasn't a coward. Rather, he had a strong sense of justice that would serve him well in life. Right now, his sense of justice, that inability to let things go was roaring at his base instincts. The one, this man had just fought to protect him. He hadn't met Issei before, but he had still jumped in to prevent him from being killed. It wasn't right to abandon him. It wasn't right to leave that guy to rot while he fled.

It wasn't right. It wasn't right. It wasn't right. Issei's second step was planted, but the distance it covered was less than half of the first.

[Fight] Something whispered in his mind. A cry for battle, a roar of defiance.

As his third step hit the ground, the boy found his body twisting him to face the downed man. Though he should run, its not like he could perform any medical assistance, he found himself turning back. His fourth step halted all momentum and his fifth step was but the first of a desperate charge to stand in the way.

[Fight] Loader and louder it roared in his ears. It felt so foreign, but at the same time it felt all too familiar to the boy. It was a strength, a rod of steel in his spine demanding justice even in the face of destruction.

'_I have to help him_.' Issei thought desperately as he stood over the dying man, his arms spread wide in an attempt to shield the one who had been trying so hard to save him. _'I have to help him. I have to help him. I have to help him. I have to-_'

[Fight] '**Kill'**

"Get out of my way worm!" the girl, whom the poor boy had loved dearly, speared him clean through and pushed him to his knees without the slightest of efforts; ignoring what should be considered a brave last stand and defiance. She summoned another spear of light when she stumbled. Looking down, she saw a red glove hang onto her leg in an attempt to stop her. "You just don't get it Issei! You die, then I tear off this one's head and mount it on my wall!"

"No Yuuma." Issei protested weakly. Brutally stabbing him through his back, she then kicked her foot free and returned to the matters at hand. Raising her spear once more she intended to end everything when a new development occurred in the form of bright red light followed by the familiar sensation of two mortal foes to the fallen angel.

"Wow, I knew there was something going on around here, but to think it was something like this." an...energetic female voice spoke up

"Fallen Angels, huh. Though it is surprising to see most of them are dead. Could it be-ah, this one has a Sacred Gear, probably one with a dragon's origin." a much more serious voice added her commentary.

Turning around with a snarl on her face Raynare immediately threw her spear at the devils. "Again." She hissed, "Again and again and again someone gets in my way. What does it take to kill you?!" Roaring her hatred she witnessed her spear be casually backhanded by one of the two female devils "Dammit, what does it take to kill two measly humans?"

In response to that rhetorical question, the two devils simply gathered insane amounts of power in their hands. There was no way Raynare would have survived at full power, much less in her less than stellar state. It was probably only due to having already gone through one gauntlet, pumping up her reflexes to maximum, that allowed her to just barely get out of the way of imminent death in the form of two lances of hellfire.

Without a hope of victory, or even vengeance, the Fallen Angel knew she had to flee. Glaring once more at the two, she spoke up, "Well Issei, I suppose congratulations are in order, you get to live today."

"We'll remember this." Raynare cried out as she fled for her life.

"That's not very convincing when you're the only one left." one of the two mysterious women spoke up gazing at the carnage. "Impressive for a human who just activated his Sacred Gear."

"Well," the other one said, the sounds of her feet indicated that she was moving rather rapidly. "I guess I'll take this one then since he's so talented."

"Eh? W-wait! Sona! He's mine! They're the ones that summoned me, you just tagged along!"

"Sorry, Rias, but the early bird gets the worm, and it'd be great to have a second dragon for my peerage." that said, there was a burst of magic and she was gone with Issei

After a pause, the lone remaining young woman sighed in a familiar tiredness before heading over to the dying man. Impressively, he was still alive and conscious, even if his eyes were coated in blood, obscuring his vision. "My goodness, they didn't hold back on you at all."

"How is the boy?" The man asked, somehow finding the strength to talk despite the wounds inflicted on him. Probably surprising her that he could talk, much less be coherent of the situation the way he was.

"He's dying." she told him. "However, someone's already getting him healed up." She paused a moment before reassuring the man. "Don't worry, despite her thieving personality, I can guarantee she won't let him die." Her attempt however brought a different result than the one she expected.

"I see." the man spoke with regret in his voice even as he choked on his blood. "Once more, it's true."

"Oh, what's true?" The female silhouette asked curiously.

"I cannot save anyone" was the reply as he closed his eyes, a pained expression plastered on his face. Though, whether that was from the physical damage or that strange regret was hard to determine.

"Oi, hang in there." The voice ordered worriedly. Whatever else she said was lost to ears that no longer heard as he began sliding the slippery slope through the land of dreams towards the realm of the dead.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"_Gahahaha, ah man, what a fight!" A man in blue cheers gleefully, even as his body collapses from his wounds and his spear slips from his mouth. His legs are shattered, his arms are severed, his eyes are nearly blinded by blood, his nose is nearly cleaved off, and his chest is full of holes; and yet the man would not have traded this outcome for anything. All he had wanted was a fight, a true and genuine battle to the death dancing with a partner that could keep up and surpass him giving a glorious duet beneath the moon's gaze and he had gotten just that tonight._

_What a fight, what a battle! By the gods of old, this night alone has made all the shit he'd gone through absolutely worth it. He had pulled out all the stops, fighting with all his strength, speed, skill, and at the final moment, the full activation of his Noble Phantasm, and yet he had still lost. Absolutely brilliant. Who cares if he is dying, who cares if he will not survive the next five minutes, who cares if he is in agony beyond description. It is completely and utterly worth it for this one fight._

_His opponent is barely any better. He should be dead, the outcome should have never come out like this. It was an unimaginable dream for a mere human to fight him and win, and yet the impossible had happened, if only because of a cheat. But the man in blue would not hold it against the boy. It shouldn't have come to this, he was not the one the spearman had sought to fight, but the boy had stepped up brilliantly to this occasion once the hand was forced. The kid had grown spectacularly from the child who had to be content with running as fast as possible from death that night a month ago and became a real challenge worth giving his all against. _

"_Hmm? What's this?" The spearman muses, as the remnants of his vision focus upon the young man's face. "Tears? Yer' actually crying for me? Ha, now that's funny kiddo."_

"_I didn't want to kill you." The boy stares at his hands, once more stained with the blood of a great person. He had liked Lancer, respected him, even if he had been to kill him the first time. Bazett had told him before her end of the various things Setanta had done and how he had died the first time. How could one hate a hero who had gone against the might of a Command Seal to allow others to escape? And as repayment, the boy had to kill him._

"_Oi," The man growls, highly offended, "None of that now boya. It's kill or be killed in this world. If ya didn't kill me, then I would have killed you, and then what would happen to them women of yours?"_

"_I- I don't want to kill. I just want to save others. Why can't I save others?" The boy still looks at his hands, going into shock. Not a surprising outcome to be frank, most people would have broken long before this. Then again, most people couldn't have hoped to last even a single exchange against the dying spearman, never mind the hundreds of clashes this fight had possessed. It's insulting to see such a great fighter breakdown when he should be celebrating his victory before heading off into the night to save them damsels in distress._

_Sighing and shaking his head even as his body begins to dissolve. "Let me tell you some advice kiddo. No one saves anyone. Plenty of people help one another, but the only one a person can save is themselves. Quit worrying 'bout the small stuff and just do what ya can. Everyone dies eventually boya; some today, some tomorrow, and some the day after. Just do your best an go out with a smile."_

"_..."_

"_...Right," The man heaves a groan of aggravation, "Can't believe I lost to this kind of guy. Ah well, it just goes to show how much my luck sucks. Just make me a promise kiddo."_

"_What?"_

"_Just try not to get all caught up in the saving of everyone. You'll only end up dying younger than me. ...Oh yeah, feel free to use my spear on that witch. Seems only fair to let ya keep that fake after beaten the original and all" Sighing one last time, the spearman dissolved into a cloud of dust. His last thoughts are of a boy who could go far, if he's only take the time for a pint and a tumble every now and then. Ah well, hopefully his next summons would give him something else worth fighting against._

_Once more the sword cracks, new flaws are revealed, but then it is forged again through blood and sacrifice, just as it has before and will again before this terrible war is over._

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

It was darker now. Looking around the world that was his to claim, he noted how much light was missing. Before, even with the smoke and the ashes, there had been a perpetual light that allowed one to truly see the size of this place and great gears endlessly turning in the sky. Now, however, it was darker. The land was black as midnight, only sparks rising from the ground and glowing molten drops provided illumination, the rays of light softly bouncing off of the countless weapons scattered on the ground. Said bits of light gave off great deals of heat, yet never actually harmed the sole individual present.

It was nearly impossible to see anything beyond thirty feet in front of one's face when looking anywhere, except for that hill. He barely dared look upon that place, but he had to. He had to be sure. So with a single glance, confirming the sight, he looked away and sadly looks away. He has promised, and he will not break his word. He will not look back, he will not regret. He will continue to move forward. It was still exactly as it was before at least. That was his small consolation here in the darkness. At least one sacrifice was not in vain.

"I'm sorry." he whispered to the air. "I did my best." In his mind he thought of them all, every single one of the fallen. He could not, would not forgive himself, for he had not been able to save them. It was irrational, it was insane to believe such, but then, when was he ever sane? Certainly not before the great inferno that he was born from, nor the second which had dashed his idealism into peaces. In the end. all he had been able to do was help others smile at their ends.

That was his curse, his defining fault.

He who desired to save, to rescue, to be the hero of justice was nothing more than a pitiful clown unable to hold anything dear to him for long. He should have fallen into despair, he would have fallen in despair, but he couldn't; for he had made promises, and he would keep them. In the darkness, he felt the shadow of a dozen sets of hands touch him. Comforting or damning he could not tell, a curse of his unique and broken mindset. In the end, however, they were but shadows, false sensations in a land of illusions and fakes.

It was getting darker fewer and fewer sparks of fire and drops of molten metal were around. He couldn't see anything more than twenty feet in front of him anymore, and it was getting darker still. With an inhuman level of calmness, he continued to watch as the darkness grew stronger and closer while his limbs grew colder and lost feeling in them.

Ten feet now.

He risked one more glance back at the hill before looking away. Still unchanged. Good. Firmly putting his back to it, he thought of the others, those he had failed before. Each of them had smiled in their own way before him as they had died. A pure smile, just like his father had possessed on the day he saved his soon to be adopted son. Why? Why were they all so happy, yet he could not find that happiness?

Five feet.

He had wanted to be a hero, to save everyone he could see. But...he had seen where that road lay, and had been forced to walk a different path, not just by 'his' existence, but by the others and the promises they demanded. Looking back, had they all known 'that one's' identity? Had they all figured it out before the man figured it out himself? Well, it didn't matter anymore. The only small bit of comfort he felt in the end was that he had not made a contract, that he had not sold his soul or compromised his existence for a single miracle. The comfort is cold, however, as it did very little now.

Nothing but darkness now, darkness and cold, only a few lingering bits of light before him vanishing one by one. He held out his hand to catch the last lingering bits of heat. "I- wish it could have been better." He utters one last time before he welcomes the end

…

…

...But the end does not come.

All of a sudden the whole damn world suddenly ramped up its lighting to an early dawn like glow. Countless sparks rose from the ground while a rain of molten metal flowed down to the ground as if someone had hit the reverse button on time itself, as if this vast world had found the strength to burn once more. Finally it was bright enough to see the great gears hanging in the skying, each of them spinning faster and faster while heat returned with a vengeance and demanded interest for losses. Especially in his ruined left arm, where it felt as though someone had pushed the appendage into a fireplace and held it there.

In a near panic, he twisted completely to gaze head upon the hill, but found with pure relief that it was still as it should be.

It was then he noticed the source of the change of atmosphere. Falling from the sky with a deceptive laziness in its descent, a giant red mountain in a strangely familiar shape dived through the sky, hitting the ground and bouncing thrice before landing on its base. It was only because it was so far off on the horizon that it took nearly a full ten seconds before the resulting shock waves and dust clouds slammed into the man sending him flying whilst a great surge of pain wracked his body originating on his disabled left arm and spreading through his core.

The last thing he thought before his head collided with the hill was that that red superstructure was in the shape of a chess piece.

Said giant chess piece, stood there silently for a minute, immobile and steadfast, but only for a minute. Slowly, it began to descend to the ground, as if the weight was too much for the earth to bear. From where it stood emerged large red cracks on the land, spreading like a spider's web in all directions, including the sole hill in this world. Once it had completely descended, the cracks reached enough distance to touch the hill, where the color began to change from bright red, to light sucking black.

Back upon ground zero of the impact zone, the red cracks vanished, the land sealing and covering up this change in the environment as though it never existed. Faster and faster the red cracks vanished until they were completely gone, only those void blackcracks on the hill remained. At the very top of the hill, a small cry aired through the land, but not from the unconscious figure laying against the hill. It came from something else, something that glowed golden at the very center of that hill.

xxxxxx

…

"_-an't we do anything to stop this?"_

…?

"_-losing him!"_

?

"_-tand back."_

…!

"_-ii-san!"_

I-

"_-hat were you thinking making him your peer?! That cloth should have killed him out-"_

I must not-

"_-at is with those veins?"_

I cannot-

"_-cloth is holding something inside. Some sort of power that's corrod-"_

I will not-

"_-a dozen phoenix tears still aren't enough?!"_

I shall not-

"_-eeding on pure demonic energy. There's only one way to save him. We need to inject him with-"_

Let you die Shir-

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Slowly he awoke to the world, his body so exhausted that it could almost be mistaken for a corpse. Not stirring, too tired to even move, feels he is surrounded, and yet, there was no malice emanating from them. Though, the area, no, the room smelled like a battlefield triage. A far too familiar scent to he who lay on the bed at the moment. He listens, for it is all he can do.

"-danger has passed." a female uttered more than a little wearily.

"Good job Grayfia." a new, male voice responded. "Good job everyone. That was too close, but you all performed above and beyond the call of duty." Sounds of mumbled compliments from individuals dead tired and desperate for sleep echo in the room. "Alright let's leave my wife to oversee the last portion and get some sleep." A dozen voices of tired agreement and shuffling noises with the occasional louder steps of someone staggering away.

Then there was only three individuals in the room.

"There's nothing else I need to do here." that same female voice emerged. "I fear, however, that he will remained scarred for life."

"I see. Well, it couldn't be helped. I've never heard of anything like this before." the leader of the departed group replied.

"Perhaps I shall have to look it up to see if there are any records, but I suspect there will be nothing relevant." she said skeptically.

"Wouldn't surprise me. That said, I'll be making a report to the others Satans about this. They'll be wondering about the sudden surge of activity we've had today."

"...You mean I'll be making the report." A tired, irritation echoing through her voice.

"No, you've done more than enough today my love. I'll take care of it, promise." he reassures her. "Go on. I'll be with you in a minute." with one last sigh, the woman departs. As soon as she closes the door behind her, the man moves to the bed and looks down with a tired expression. "You're not fooling anyone." he says. The man's endurance is exceptional, but foolishness at this point is not something he'll tolerate kindly towards.

But, he is not speaking to the other man laying on the bed. Instead, he looks just a little beyond and below the bed. Rising up from the floor comes another female, this one much younger than the departed. "Rias, you need to get to bed as well. It's been a long day." He pauses, probably to look at a clock or out a window from what his words indicate, "It's been a long night too. Morning is almost here."

"But nii-san" the, probably teenage, girl pleads.

Sighing at an argument he is far too tired to deal with, he gives in and says. "Fine, but don't disturb him, if I never go through something like that again, it'll be all too soon."

"Thank you." she says. "Thank you for everything."

"Anything for my cute little sister." a fondness enters his voice even as he walks towards the door. "That said Rias, I never thought you were into older men."

"Nii-san!" She cries out in defense. "It's not like that."

"Yes yes," he waves off as he prepares to shut the door behind him, before he suddenly gives one last call out. "Oh yes, congratulations on your mutated piece." Shutting the door and speaking softly so that his little sister does not hear him, he adds, "Even if it is the ugliest one I've ever heard of."

Alone with the sleeping (or at least appearing asleep) man, the girl just stared at him for a time,not moving, not making a sound, just staring at him. Tentatively, as though afraid he would shatter at any moment, she placed a hand on his head, stroking her hand though his hair. "You idiot." She finally speaks, her voice choking in relief. "You great idiot. What were you thinking, trying to die like that?" Moisture touches the 'sleeping' man from on high, she's crying. Why? Why cry for him?

She stands beside him for a time, those silent tears running down onto him before she steps back. He then hears a sounds of cloth rustling for a time. Though, in his current state, he is paralyzed, and more than that, he is still far too injured and tired to even open his eyes. His mind is mud, and yet he forces his way through it out of necessity. He listens carefully as the last rustle of cloth ends, before he hears her step forward once more.

It is a surprise to suddenly feel her carefully lay herself next to him. The bed, barely big enough for himself is now crowded on one side with the new arrival. How she keeps from falling out is a mystery, but somehow she does it. What's more, for some reason, she has discarded her clothing. ...Must be some sort of healing magic. Several of the old rituals were supposed to involve things like this. That, or it was just some rather bored spellcasters with too much time and imagination on their hands.

Probably someone like Merlin.

While his inner shyness wanted to leave, to get up and cover the girl, the reality was that even opening his eyes would send him back into oblivion. So he lays there, listening her cry her last tears and wrap an arm carefully across his chest. At last, she falls asleep, her breathing a soft and calm breeze after a storm of tears and shivers.

He's exhausted, paralyzed from what should have been his death, yet he cannot just let someone cry for him like this. So, gathering all his strength, he pushes out into his right arm and down to his hand so that he pats her back twice before falling back to blissful oblivion. As sentimental as the gesture was, however, he should have focused on opening his eyes instead. He might have been able to catch sight of a strange mark appearing on the naked girl if he had.

xxxxxxx

"Why? Why aren't they healing?" Raynare cried out in her hideout. The wounds she had sustained were not closing to any healing magic she performed. They rejected her power, rejected her will as though she was a mere human. "Heal damn you." She sent another surge of healing magic into the large cut on her stomach, but it still wept blood.

This wasn't working, and she had to admit that whatever that man had done to her had been a neat job. If she didn't heal in a few days, she might well bleed out. She couldn;t go to Azaziel, as she had broken his orders and killed Issei rather than study him, and all the other Fallen Angels would rend her limb from limb for her weakness.

Although, there was one option left for her if her powers failed. Yes, her fallen comrades had been able to manipulate the transfer of one particular individual. Though she was not due for another day or two, that option was still there. It'd be tight with the way she was wounded, but there was still a way, one that would allow Raynare to get revenge.

For, what Devil would bypass such a powerful tool as that gray-haired man? None. It was inevitable, and Raynare would be ready to meet him soon, and then all debts would be paid.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Next time:

_Our Father, who died in Heaven_

_Hollow is thy name_

_Thy kingdom gone_

_Thy will be lost_

_On Earth as it is in Heaven_

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tiger Dojo

Take the Strange Advice (Y/N)

Y- *Click*

"Everyone, how have you been?" a brown haired woman waves her Bouken in her right arm while wearing a traditional white training Dougi. "Ya, its been a long time since we last had a chat like this. Then again, it is a Fate/Stay Night Fanfiction, so it was bound to happen eventually." She looks off to the side, "Even if our author is an unmotivated and lazy bastard who gets too easily distracted with video games."

"Ano, who are you?" Hyuodou Issei asked in confusion.

"Yosh, it appears that once more my glorious task begins. For those of you unaware, this is the assistance corner that solves all your problems for you upon reaching the Dead End, Tiger Dojo at your service. Lead by the beautiful and wise Sensei Fujimura Taiga."

"And her adorable First Assistant Illyasviel Von Einzbern." an albino girl with pure red eyes and white hair pops in wearing a sports shirt and purple bloomer track shorts.

"Ooooooooh, its the Legendary Bloomers!" Issei cries out in pure joy at the long abandoned outfit.

"I see you are a _connoisseur_ of fine fabric there boya" Illya leans back her head and laughs in a prideful ojou-sama manner of 'Ohohoho"

"Of course, I couldn't call myself an aspiring Harem King without loving such legendary objects of dreams." nodding his head furiously before realizing, "Ah, but you said this is for 'Dead Ends'? So, I'm going to die then?"

"Oh no, not at all." Taiga corrects him

"Eh?"

"Well its really surprising, but somehow you also have found a way to live after being killed" Taiga laughs off.

"I thought only Onii-chan could pull that off, but apparently you too have the qualifications for 'protagonist'"

"Protagonist? The coveted spot of otakus and heros everywhere" could it be, had he always had the potential.

"Oh yes, but not for this story" Taiga dashes his hopes with casual disregard.

"Eh?"

"You've basically just run into the classic 'Two Main Protagonists in a plot issue', one of them always ends up second best." Illya explains

"That's right First student, too many 'First Main Protagonists' only detriments a story. Instead, you've been assigned a different route. Feel proud of yourself, for you now possess the right to aim for the impossible heroine route and her associates."

"Associates?"

"Oh yes, all female except for one rival." Taiga clarifies.

"So I can still be a Harem King?" a tiny ray of hope in the darkness.

"Yeah sure, why not. Good Luck with that." Illya waves off dismissively. "It doesn't matter to us after all. We won;t be seeing you here again."

*Whack*

"Ow! What was that for Taiga Sensei?" Illya cries out in agony.

"You're detracting from our purpose First Student."

"Ah!, My mistake Sensei" Illya bows to the readers.

"Now then, all silliness aside." Taiga coughs into her mouth. "Issei-kun, you should never believe in things too good to be true."

"Of course," Illya nods, "Perverted *Twang*, Unattractive *Twang Twang*, No Good *Twang x4*, Pieces of Human Trash *Twang x10*, without a single redeeming feature *Twang x30* can never hope to attract a School Idol, you idiot *Twang x52*."

"Goooooo, do you have to be so cruel First Student?" Issei cried out from the ninety nine proverbial arrow piercing his back.

"I'm only cruel to be kind." Illya replied sweetly.

Patting the boy on the head. "Listen well Issei, Yuuma-chan may look like a sweet and innocent child, but she is clearly in a higher class than one you can aspire for in your current form."

"Yes, worms should only mingle with worms." Illya nodded.

"Geh!" Issei held a hand to his heart. "Is that all I am to you Illya-chan?"

"That's 'san' to you boyo," She dismissed his plea, "And you got my Onii-chan killed with your helplessness. *Twack* OW!"

"Now now Illya, we're supposed to put aside our grudges in these meetings." Taiga waves her wooden sword menacingly. "So then, the final piece of advice Issei-kun is to be more suspicious about beautiful girls randomly asking you out."

Turning to the audience she waves off. "Well then, that's all the time we have for today! I shall wait for you all next time!"

"And we're expecting a special guest next time as well!" Illya declares.

And with that, the curtain closes ending this session of Tiger Dojo.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Author's Note: My god, has it really been over a year since I last uploaded anything of worth? Right, well. I guess this is my attempt at getting back on the horse. God knows, I've started up a dozen times, written between 5000-8000 words on different stories, but found each of them: Lacking, boring, repetitive, waste of time reading, or just plain dumb. Hopefully this one will be better. We'll see I guess. I will admit, however, I hate writing Battle scenes, which has more than once made me want to rip my hair out trying to describe what I see in my mind on paper.

Honestly, Highschool DxD had a lot of potential with its lore and its characters, but then it focuses strangely. Honestly, The characters should come off a lot more powerful then they do. Then again, it comes from the point of view from a teenager with raging hormones and PTSD, so that might skew things a bit.

Shirou, on the otherhand, tends to (in other fanfiction) have the problem of either being too idiotic when he is in fact a deconstruction of the 'hero' troupe, too overpowered (he does have an unlimited arsenal of weapons at his disposal), or just too damn lucky.

There's a reason why there are 30 DEAD ENDS in Fate/Stay night visual novel compared to the 5 'good ends' of which, one still gets him killed while another one doesn't address in the slightest the risk of becoming a tragedy. I figured I'd try going down a different path, one where Shirou doesn't die, but he doesn't exactly get out unscathed and his attempts at help may or may not have made things go a hell of a lot worse and now has a good chance of going insane if he pushes himself too far.

Well lets see how it goes I guess. Feel free to drop a review, but don't get too literal on world physics, Fate/Stay Night and Highschool DxD don't exactly have stable rules and I'm just making some light reading material that you read for free.

Have Fun


	2. Chapter 2

**Insanity**

_adjective_

1. In a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction; seriously mentally ill.

_ 2. Law_. A defect of reason as a result of mental illness, such that a defendant does not know what he or she is doing or that it is wrong

_Verb_

3. Repeatedly attempting the same action and hoping for a different result

Chapter 2

* * *

xxxxxxxx

_Broken again, burnt up once more into a crumbling pile of slag he was, is, and will be again, for he is not a man, but a sword. Birthed from fire, filled with steel, he lay in a mess; pieces chipped off, lost, or discarded. Shattered, again and again and again countless times he was beaten and cracked, only to be forged anew for another purpose not of his choosing. Never the same, and never whole. Always new, always different he is melted and shaped again. _

_Bits and pieces are lost along the path, only for new parts to integrate with him. Things are lost, parts removed with cruel and callous misuse. Foul foes and foolish friendlies stand before him, never understanding what they do to him, nor comprehending what he does unto them in turn. They cry out against him, attempting to turn him away from what he seems born to do._

_No, not born, but forged. He has purpose and cannot be dissuaded in his decision. Thus he breaks against them, never victorious, never defeated. The path he walks deviates and detours the course but he forges ahead despite the costs to him, for he shall ever be filled with new steel to be tested._

_If tested, he may be found wanting and will be rejected in turn. An endless cycle, a torment without end, yet the path is willingly chosen. The pain is accepted, and the pieces lost shall be left behind. If he must break, than he will become stronger. If he must shatter, he will endure. _

_For he is a sword, broken though he may be,_

_even a broken blade can still cut down the enemy_

* * *

Slowly opening her eyes, Rias Gremory awoke to reality. Shaking the sleep out of her mind she began to rub the dried remnants of tears from her eyes. Stretching like a cat in the morning, she turned to look upon the individual she had now contracted as her pawn. That though immediately brought the recent memory of how close she had come to nearly killing this man. It had just been a whim of the moment to make him hers, just a single moment born from pity of how horrible the man had felt in his last moments.

"_I see. Once more, it's true. I cannot save anyone"_

Simple, simple little words, almost childish to come from his mouth, and yet, he had seemed so distraught at that notion. Well, it just wasn't right to let it end like that. So she had pulled out one of her pawn pieces to see if it was possible to resurrect him as a devil. A simple, near childish impulse to not let him die with that pained expression on his face.

Her brother did keep telling her that she was far too easily affected by tragic stories. Her entire peerage was nothing but a collection of individuals all suffering from the evils of the world.

As for the man, she hadn't hesitated to add him to her group any more than she had hesitated for the others. One pawn had been more than enough, for the situation. He had power, she could feel it faintly even as he died, but one pawn had been more than enough; and that should have been her first clue that something was wrong. Hindsight is irrelevant, however, as the past cannot be changed, only learned from.

Her eyes focused on the red cloth and beads wrapping up that left arm of his. That cloth, even though she now knew what it was, she still could not detect the vast holy power contained within them. The power that had nearly killed her pawn in the initial moments before- No, best not to think about what came after. Such a horrible abomination was best left forgotten in her nightmares.

That black corrosion- no, don't think about it Though she was Rias Gremory, a proud member of the Gremory clan, one of the ruling clans of the devils, there was some things, some things that she wanted no part of. She didn't know what that thing was, but every bone in her body knew it to be evil, evil on the scale the church loved to proclaim her race to bathe in.

Foolishness and propaganda the lot of it.

Even, her own brother, one of the leaders of her race had been upset by what that Blackness indicated; and if he was wary, then there was a damn good reason for it.

"What are you?" She whispered to him, wondering what his story was, and how he had come to possess such a cursed existence. As expected, however, her pawn remained blissfully unaware of her presence, lost in the lands of dreams from what he had gone through.

Honestly, that was good as far as she was concerned, the screams of pain had been nerve wracking as his body had corroded. Yet, now he looked the same as he had before, mostly. Her hands traced from his left shoulder up his neck to his face surrounding his left eye slowly, taking in the ever present black veins that stood out from his skin.

Flesh should never corrode, but what flesh can become steel needles? What kind of flesh can do such things and radiate such evil by merely existing?

Once, the man might have been handsome, incredibly handsome in fact (in her personal opinion). Now, however, with those veins and their surrounding bits of sickly white flesh, he would be forever marred. She had thought, back when she started the resurrection spell, that those things would go away. Instead, they mocked her, and her arrogant pride on believing herself above mistakes. Between the white patches, the veins, the sagging skin, and various minuet scars, he looked he had aged twenty years while suffering a horrible disease.

Well, she would have to make it up to him once he awoke.

Sliding off the bed, she calmly dressed herself, noting that her clothes were already laid out for her. Sighing at the wasteful extravagance when all she wanted was independence to forge her own path, she began dressing, only to pause. Upon her left had was a strange mark that was not supposed to be there. It was some sort of red tattoo in the shape of a cup, sectioned off by the vessel portion and two more sections taking the shape of handles on either side.

This was...not there yesterday. Was it related to her pawn? Rubbing on it proved that it was indeed tattooed on rather than painted. Though Rias Gremory had no aversion to her own body, she did not like being marked without her consent. Continuing to dress herself, she contemplated her options. She could just go right out and ask others, but she wanted to be independent. For something so...mundane after everything yesterday, this was just pettiness.

Besides, there was a far simpler solution available while she investigated this mark on her own time. Once she was fully dressed, it was the simplest of things to walk over to her own room and dig into her dresser to find a pair of white gloves. Formfitting and rather snug, no one would notice the mark. There, problem solved, temporarily until she found more about this strange mark.

Calmly walking the familiar halls where she had grown up, Rias made her way down to the dining table and took her appropriate seat.

"Glad you could join us." Her older brother, Sirzechs Lucifer, formerly known as Sirzechs Gremory before he took on the role as the 'Crimson Satan', spoke as he sipped what smelled like pure black coffee. Considering how he usually liked to add massive amounts of milk and sugar to his drink, the fact that he was having pure coffee told her that her brother had probably not gotten any sleep at all. Not that she had much ability to talk as she had only slept a few hours herself.

"Good morning nii-san." she replied to him as the first course of food was placed before her to consume by a silent servant working here. "Are the others all sleeping?" she indicated the deserted table.

"Most likely, the ritual took a great deal out of the others."

"I wish you would have let me help." She bemoaned. It was her fault, it was her mistake, but they had pushed her aside and kept her away from him.

"Not a chance in hell." was her brother's reply before he tore into his meal as savagely a starving man, throwing away all decorum to replenish his reserves as fast as possible. "The danger was too great and your control my dear sister is still too lacking for 'that' kind of act." Pouting slightly, Rias began to eat her own meal, though, with far more dignity than her brother. For a time, there was only silence beyond the occasional clink of silverware. It was a start contrast of how silent it was now compared to what it had been a few ours ago.

Compared to all the screaming, yelling, and chanting that had gone on, it was now as silent as a grave. No, bad choice of analogies, 'he' would not die. Rias would not allow that. It would be far more prudent to say that it was as silent as a church. Yes, that gives a connotation of a vigil, rather appropriate now, even if they are Devils.

"You know," Her brother suddenly broke in, drawing in his sister's attention. Wiping off a small bit of food form his chin, her brother continued, "They're already giving this guy a name."

Raising an eyebrow Rias broke in, "I'm sure that he already has a name brother."

"Not what I meant, but that does remind me." he countered. Sighing once before turning to look at her fully to watch her reactions, he inform his beloved little sister the hard truth. "It's gone into his brain Rias. There is a good chance that he will have mild to sever memory loss." Noting the slight stiffening of her stance, he changed the subject, "But what I meant earlier was that certain circles are already inquiring about 'the most expensive pawn' you contracted."

His beloved little sister could not have hid that wince with a sheet of lead.

"Though, that is both good and bad news in of itself." he added. He didn't need to tell her why, the reasoning was obvious to her. After all, why would on of the Four Great Satans burn through the family inventory of Phoenix Tears and recall every member of his peerage as well as all the powerful members of the Gremory household for a mere pawn?

Yes, Sirzechs doted on his little sister and indulged in her whims, but to go through that kind of extent went above and beyond any definition of doting. Thus, there must be something special about this 'pawn', or at least that is what others will assume. Why else would they spend a fortune on him?

Now that was the billion dollar question, and one of which Sirzechs Lucifer would probably be asking himself for centuries to come.

He had to blink his eyes to make sure that he was seeing correctly at the moment when his little sister bowed deeply in his direction.

"I promise upon my name as Rias of the House Gremory that I will pay you back for this one day." she intoned respectfully.

"None of that." Her brother waved off, "None of that now. We are family, family does not hold account or demand repayment of debts."

"But-"

"No." He finalized. "You owe me nothing. It was an honest mistake, one I'm **sure** you will never attempt again." He then smiled weakly, "Then again, what are the odds anyone will ever have to go through something like this again?" Though he'd only 'just' finished filling out the paperwork, he'd put up half his fortune on a bet that there were no records of anything like last night's occurrence ever happening no matter how hard he searched.

And that made him suspicious. After all, there was that alien sensation that came the night before that pawn's appearance. Coincidence? Possible, but he was one of the four leaders of his people for more than just his insane reserves of power. There was a calculating brain within that skull of his, no matter the jokes his wife muttered under her breath.

But that shouldn't concern his little sister. Let her remain pure, untainted by the realities of this world for a while longer. Let her enjoy her childhood as long as possible. Sirzechs hadn't really had that option, growing up in the midst of the Great War. Yes, he had a small bit of time to enjoy the fruits of the world, but the reality was that he was desperately trying to prepare for the war that butchered nearly seventy three percent of his race's population.

Rias was still too naïve, trusting, and above all else, too kind to understand the full concept of necessary evils like having your wife implant a spell that could blow up that pawn's head if he so much as looked at Rias the wrong way while Rias was distracted at breakfast. By now, all it should take is a single uttered phrase and the magic buried beneath that steel gray hair to ensure that the nothing larger than an atom would remain of that man.

"What are you planning brother?" Rias suddenly spoke up, glaring suspiciously at her brother. That brought him up short for a moment before realizing his face must have given away something. With well practiced ease, Sirzechs reverted his face to one more suiting to his 'laid-back' reputation.

"Oh, just thinking of your personal tastes." He says, getting the expected results, his little sister's face turning as red as a tomato. "Mm Mm, yes I can see it now."

"Nii-san!"

"Tall, dark, athletic build, and some scars for character."

"Nii-san please!"

"Fine fine." He gives up after already achieving his objective of distracting her. There might still be a need for time, by Sirzechs doubted it. His wife was qualified to lead as a Lucifer amongst the Devils were it not for the fact that she had chosen to step down from power to marry him. Still, never hurts to be cautious. "By the way, you will be going to school today." he informed her.

"Eh?" Rias blinked at him in confusion.

"You wanted to be independent, yes? Then you have to fulfill your obligations to society." He told her bluntly.

"But-" she began.

"You have others in your peerage Rias, you cannot ignore them in favor of one who will be unresponsive for some time." Who knows when that guy will wake up. Days, weeks, months, he might not even wake up at all. Hey, a devil can dream can't he?

In the end, she'd go to class, she might try to weasel out of it a bit longer, but she'd give in. Her peerage would be wondering about what had happened, the only other one besides Rias with any information would be Akeno who had barely even had time to try to help that man before Sirzechs and the others had gotten involved and kicked them out to work.

Ah, and there was his wife now, calmly walking down the steps looking elegant as ever. Her slightest of nods told him all he needed to know about the results of the back-up plan. With her taking her place beside him, the three Devils continued to eat their breakfasts, blissfully ignorant of what kind of character they had resting in the guest bedroom.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hmm, the results seem promising,"A man with a dozen black wings muttered to himself looking over research notes. "Very promising, the output would be considerable...Ah! But then it would overload the core. Damn, I messed up. I need to improve the capacitors and cooling system if-"

"Excuse me my Lord." a nervous voice broke in. It was a young looking male black-winged assistant sweating slightly as he interrupted the boss's research reviews. Not always the healthiest of decisions.

"Hmm? Ah, none of that formality now, just Azazel." one of the leaders of the Fallen Angels waved off. "So, what's up? Something interesting?" It's better be, or there would be consequences for interrupting his work.

"Well sir, um..." The assistant began, and saw his boss's eyes narrow at the behavior. Making damned sure that his speech did not include any stuttering, he continued. "Do you remember Raynare?"

"...Yeeeeeeees," Azazel drawled out slowly. Of course he knew, he had given her the responsibility of keeping an eye on a certain boy in Japan who may or may not possess the Red Heavenly Dragon within him. The only reason anyone would bring up Raynare before her usual check in time was that something had gone wrong.

"She...well she disobeyed your orders sir." The assistant instantly winced when his leader snapped his clipboard at the news. "She chose to attack the Sacred Gear possessor along with three of her companions-"

"Names" Azazel demanded.

"Um, lets see...I have them here-ah! Donaseek, Kalawarner, and Mittelt." the assistant answered. "They're all, um, rather new sir. None of them have been with us for more than a few centuries."

Great, young hotheads still rolling around and indulging themselves on anything that caught their attention and getting involved in stupid causes without consideration of the big picture. "Continue." Azazel demanded. Meanwhile, he mentally began recalling where the 'kill order' forms were hidden in his filing system. Yes, he knew she had originally Fallen because of loving him, but frankly, he wasn't interested in her in the slightest. Besides, with the current status of the Fallen Angels at critically dangerous levels, traitorous actions had to be punished swiftly before all shreds of hope for survival were decimated.

"Well, as you might have guessed, they...killed the host." The assistant waited to see if any reaction would come from the boss, but it didn't come. Seeing that the worst news had only caused Azazel to remain completely stoic, the assistant continued. "However, several oddities appear in the aftermath."

"Oh?" Azazel quirked an eyebrow, his tone holding a hint of interest, but mostly was made up of 'disgust'. All that work, all that effort and searching going down the drain. Frustrating does not come close to describing his feelings at the moment.

"Well, all three of Raynare's companions are dead sir."

"I see, so the boy killed them-"

"Well, not quite sir. That's where the anomalies begin to appear. To start, there was another human in the vicinity of where Raynare attacked the boy." Scratching his head, "It was initially suspected that this other individual, referred to as Subject B currently, possessed a Sacred Gear of some kind, however, no one has ever heard of a Sacred gear that causes plants to wither and die before."

"Oh? Wither?" interest now dripped heavily in Azazel's voice.

"Well that's the best our findings can explain the strange dead patch. But then it gets stranger with Subject B. See, we've been able to determine that both subjects we're heavily damaged fighting Raynare, but there is a moderate-sized pool of fairly blood under a bush in the vicinity indicating someone roughly the same size as Subject B was resting there for some time. Current theory is that he was injured beforehand. The patch of earth he rested on was completely withered away as well as a a great deal of the bush he hid under. Just...dying away where he touched."

"Yes, that is interesting, but why it's believed that Raynare's accomplices died because of this 'Subject B'" Azazel remarked. So far, he hadn't heard anything that tied the three dead Fallen Angels to this intruder.

"Simple sir, all three of them died from weapons, bladed weapons of some kind. We know that the boy has no ability to gain access to any weapon that could harm one of us, but all signs indicate that the three were killed by a sword or a spear. Um, Mittelt's head was blown clean off, we still can't find it by the way, but her neck injuries do indicate some sort of smooth edge was applied to it. Donaseek was cut from shoulder to hip in the cleanest cut anyone's ever seen. Kalawarner's death, however, is another anomaly sir."

Inhaling deeply at the disturbing news laid out for him, the assistant, "She was killed by a spear, one with almost unheard of amounts of demonic taint. The taint, however, does have a recorded precedent, a spear that... shouldn't exist anymore. Gae Bolg"

A lesser being would have cried out 'Impossible' or 'your data must be wrong'. A lesser being would have pointed out that Gae Bolg, weapon belonging to the Third Original Satan was destroyed completely and utterly by Zaphikel's Stand a thousand years ago. Nothing had gotten out alive from the death throes of the Chief Throne. The ancient Demon Spear had been so utterly destroyed that the lone fragment found had been no bigger than a grape, or so the tales went.

Azazel, however, was a scientist by creation, originally charged by God before the angel's fall to discover the secrets of existence. The word 'impossible' wasn't in his mental dictionary. It might be improbable that Gae Bolg suddenly appeared after vanishing for a thousand years, but there might be something everyone had missed all this time. Its not like anyone had any real time to investigate on the survival a weapon in the middle of a war, and after the war there had been far too much work to do to ever consider looking for something that by all rights should be completely shattered.

Besides, Zaphikel's self-made grave was deep inside Heaven. Fallen Angel and Devil insertion teams would have been discovered long before they ever arrived in that devastated zone and would have been torn apart by the remnants of Heaven's Legion.

"Gae...Bolg..." Azazel tasted the name upon his lips for the first time in centuries. "Well, that is interesting. Most interesting." Perhaps he was not the only one attempting to create artificial Sacred Gears (or in this case, Demonic Gears), or perhaps someone could have taken the time to reassemble the scattered fragments.

Either way, the delicate balance of these times were once more shifting.

Mentally, he was already making a checklist of items to bring on a surprise trip to Japan. Still, he needed to get this over with. "So, Raynare disobeyed me, killed the target she was supposed to simply observe, brought in three comrades to help, got said companions killed by an unknown third party who may have possess Gae Bolg. That everything?"

"Uh, almost." The assistant squirmed under the mad gleam in his boss's eyes he always got when something interesting caught his attention. "I just need to cover the final outcome of the two humans."

"They were resurrected into Devils." Azazel said simply, as though it was the obvious outcome of a mathematical formula.

"What? Yeah, how did you know?"

"Because two daughters of the most prominent Devil families reside there. Two little sisters of two of the four Lucifers, with well known rivalries and impressive records of both power and prestige residing and maturing in that backwater wouldn't have missed that kind of commotion if they were blind, deaf, and dumb." Azazel explained as he went to his filing system looking for those aforementioned forms. "Who got who?"

"Um, the suspected possessor of the red heavenly dragon is now with the Sitri clan, and Subject B is now with Gremory Clan. However, there's been some commotion going on in the Gremory clan for the past day. We're not sure what, but they've recalled everyone of their strongest members and peerage for something and have used Phoenix Tears multiple times."

Azazel paused his rummaging for a moment. "Hmm, did the Gremory Girl receive some damage or something? Raynare can't be the cause, she couldn't face the youngest of the Gremorys and hope to survive. Sitri? No, they're rivalry has never crossed beyond fierce friendliness. Hmm, Subject B again then. But, is it him or the girl that's dying?"

Oh well, either way, Azazel was sure that many questions would be answered by this mysterious 'Subject B' as soon as he finally found those termination forms and headed of to... to...

Actually, what the heck is the name of that city anyways?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

_Shirou, it's time_

He was awake.

Like a switch thrown in his head, he went from deepest of sleeps to awake. Rolling out of the unfamiliar bed, he took stock of the room. Tasteful paintings, golden candle sticks, a velvet bed, and several smaller indications that the ones who owned this place were wealthy. More importantly, Magic saturated the air here. An overwhelming amount of magic that made him nearly choke. This, this is not a residence of mortal men. No human, no magus of any purity could possess so much.

Hell, there were some Dead Apostle Ancestors that didn't have this much power in one location.

Seeing where he was, he then focused on the next most important thing. Himself. More importantly, he was bare naked save his underwear and the shroud and beads wrapped around his arm. With unconscious effort, he created a new set of clothes. Though he was loathe to lose the armor for his arm, he was not willing to remain where he was at the moment. Perhaps later he would come back to retrieve it, it might all be a misunderstanding.

He might have just ended up in a Magician's home...if they even possessed any form of residence.

No, forget that, his luck was never that good. Not since...how long has it been? Eight years? Ten?

Time flies and he didn't want to count, didn't want to think about the war. Too much was lost, far far too much was lost. Either way, he was as ready as he was going to get. His false clothing would eventually break down, but it would last for a day or two. More than enough time to acquire real garments, even if his armor was probably lost to some grubby hand.

It's not like the armor was all that special, basic durability and protection, nothing more.

He noted with dissatisfaction that he was still exhausted. With what he couldn't fully remember. Something about flying enemies and a certainty that he was going to die. Eh, he'd shake out the cobwebs in his mind after he was out of here.

With ease, he opened the window and hopped outside. Following the scent of magic, he evaded the strong points and fled, noting with some curiosity that most of the magic seemed to aim upwards for some reason.

Weird, but the blind spots was rather helpful, too damn helpful frankly. Which meant he was probably being allowed to leave. He'd ask questions, but now was not the time. He felt terrible, operating at far less than peak condition. Not a good position to possess in unfamiliar lands. Though he said that, he swore that the place seemed rather familiar for some reason.

Not important right now, he needed to get moving-

-Wait.

Turning, he focused on something, something calling to him at his most base level as his mind continued to wake up. It was beyond his senses, but he felt the 'call' and had the 'need' to go. It was weird, now that he was aware of the connection, it was insistent. Focusing on the kink, he felt a connection to...someone? A person? Weird, it was like he had signed a geas contract with a person, but he hadn't.

Not to his knowledge.

Not unless...someone had put one on him while he was asleep. It that was how it was, then it might be an attempt to manipulate him. A revolting thought, but, that might not be the case. He didn't know, he couldn't know for certain. Not until he located the origin of this 'contract'. Then he'd deal with this irritating and ever increasingly insistent sensation one way or the other. He could push it off, ignore it completely if he desired. But, if he felt the connection, then so to could it be possible that the one on the other hand could locate him as well.

Back in the manor the man had just left behind, a woman dressed in what looked like a maid's outfit opened the door to the now abandoned room and stepped inside. Upon seeing that the room was now vacated, she muttered a single, and rather simple spell that caused a red line to appear on the bed, linger on the floor for a bit before going out the window.

Nodding her head at the information, she cast a second spell that caused an illusion of the manor and the surrounding lands to appear. Gazing upon it for a moment, and nodding at the information, she made her way out of the room towards another portion of the manor.

"Our 'guest' has just left the grounds." Grayfia informed her husband as she entered his office away from his office.

"Already? He's actually awake?" Sirzechs looked up from his paperwork in surprise.

"Awake and running." His wife replied before uttering a spell. Before her appeared what looked like a crystal ball that began projecting the image of Rias' new pawn as he made his way out of the forest.

"Hmm, he got out of there rather quickly." Sirzechs noted. "And he somehow knew exactly which direction would take him back to the city."

"Might it be possible that he can sense Rias?" Grayfia asked.

His response was just to look at her in silence before shaking his head slightly. There was no way that the pawn could sense its king any more than the king could sense the pawn. Normally it would have been instinctive, but...after last night such drastic actions had to be taken, the first of its kind in fact, that such an option was not possible.

"Well, lets see what he's up to." Sirzechs shrugged as he noted the man make his way through the city getting several looks of disgust, horror, and pity, probably from his appearance. Scars and marks like that on a person would unnerve just about anyone. Though, there was strange, it was like the man didn't even notice what had happened to his face. That, or perhaps he already knew and just didn't care.

They continued to watch as the man had the sudden and rather strange meeting with a young, blond nun of all things.

xxxxxx

"_Wait_!" A young, feminine voice called out in some form of English. Pausing his search for that strange sensation's source, he turned to the direction of the voice... then looked down. Somehow, this little blond girl had gotten close enough to touch him without him even noticing her presence. He quickly noted that she was a nun, perhaps the local overseer?

"_Yes_?" He asked her curiously in her language.

"Ah_, could you follow me please?_" She kept looking left and right, noticing the crowd looking at her and seemed rather flustered by it all.

"_Ah? Sure._" Perhaps she was wondering about him possessing the Shroud, or perhaps she already knew about it since he was a semi-famous individual within certain circles and had orders involving him.

Well, either way, he was in an unfamiliar city (even if parts of it seemed to scratch the back of his mind in familiarity) and could use some help. Calmly, he followed the nervous nun as she lead him to a side alley, mildly noting the curious gossiping going around. Well, if she wasn't going to deal with the rumors, then who was he to care?

"_Um, please don't tell anyone about this._" the girl asked once they were alone. With that, she put her palms together in in the semblance of prayer when they then began glowing. The scent of the power coming from her while strong, lacked any indication of ill intent. Perhaps he should be more cautious, but she seemed...rather worried.

Then she placed her hands upon him. It felt, it felt rather good all things considering. He still felt like hell, but at least it had eased off a bit, like a cool glass of water pressed against his head on a boiling hot day. But...the blond nun just looked at him with a downcast expression. Removing her hands, that pleasant sensation vanished and everything felt like it had before. Clasping her hands again, causing them to glow brighter and brighter, she placed her hands on him again.

Once more, he felt that nice sensation came upon him, only to vanish when her hands left him.

"_Auuu, I failed,"_ the poor thing began to weep. Her helpless expression could only bring worry and concern to the one who she tried to heal.

"_Don't worry about it, there wasn't any way this could be healed._" He informed her. "_It's been like this for a long time now._" He indicated his arm.

"_But, it always worked before_." she spoke between her sniffles. She's already lost most of her self esteem from earlier events, but suddenly finding her power was not working, possibly failing entirely was hurting her terribly.

"_Some things cannot be healed_." He counseled her. "_Nor should some things be healed._" If his arm healed up, he would be utterly terrified. That would mean his own soul was being overwritten. Seeing that she was still upset, he awkwardly ruffled her hair and tried to calm her down._ "It's okay, thank you for trying."_ He tried lamely. He wasn't- he wasn't very good with this kind of thing. He couldn't really comfort anyone, he didn't really know how.

It didn't work, as expected. Sighing mentally to himself for this outcome, he did what he could only ever do with any degree of proficiency, offer to help her. _"Sorry. Um, well, look, do you need any help?" _Yes, the sensation was still there pulling him, but because it was still there, he could afford to be detracted, if only for a short time.

It took a bit of time, both of them awkward people with issues that should probably be seen to by professional psychologists, but eventually, the nun informed the man that she had been reassigned and rushed over to this city thinking that perhaps her skills were needed (hence why she had been upset when her ability to heal appeared to not be working).

They gave her a map of where to go, but the map was in Japanese, not a language she spoke with any degree of fluency. That brought about another few minutes of awkward conversation attempts before the man finally was given the map and located the church, conveniently marked with a bright red circle.

Looking up to the street signs and finding the reference to the map, he was confident enough to find this church. At least the amount of time together was apparently enough for the man to convince her to let him lead the way. Honestly, even without the map he might have been able to lead her straight to the church, there was a strange, and rather nostalgic pattern about this place. One that he kept calling back to him, echoing to a piece of himself that he had sealed away.

If he had time, he would investigate this city more.

"_Thank you._" the nun spoke up suddenly.

"_For what?"_ he asked, tilting his head a bit in confusion.

"_For helping me."_ she clarified

"_Oh, no problem,"_ He waved off the simple kindness as something not worthy of noticing, "_it just happened._"

She smiled at him slightly, "_Our Lord does work in mysterious ways_."

He made no comment on that, after all, he was a magus. In the eyes of the church, he was a pagan, a heretic, or a semi-necessary evil at best. Commenting on what he thought of the faith, especially after meeting a certain priest, had always resulted in a souring of the already poor relationship he had with the organization.

"_Asia_." She spoke through his stoic silence.

"_Hmm_?"

"_Asia, my name is Asia Argento._" she clarified. It was then that he realized that he hadn't actually introduced himself. Wow, he must be more tired than he thought.

"_Shirou, Emiya Shirou._" He introduced himself. "_Although, I believe it would be Shirou Emiya for you right?_" Mentally he berated himself for not doing so sooner, wondering what had come over him.

"_Shirou Emiya, huh. It's a nice name_." She told him.

"_Thanks_." he replied as they turned a corner. "_Same to you._"

"_Eheh_." He got a small chuckle out of her for that, "_Say, Shirou, what happened to your arm?_" She asked looking at the useless limb with concern.

"_I...gave it up_," He finally told her. "_to save others, I gave it up_."

"_Ah, I see_." She really didn't but it sounded like he was resolute about it. "_You did it to save others?_"

"Yeah," he scratched his head, "_it was the right thing to do_." He gave a small chuckle, but not one of amusement. Rather, it was one of self mocking. "_Some hero I turned out to be_."

"_Don't be like that._" Asia tried to encourage him. "_I'm sure you did your best._"

"_My best, huh..._" He gave a crooked smile. "_Yeah, that's all I can do, isn't it?_" Any other conversation they were going to have was cut off by a certain sight. "_Ah, I think I see the church now._" Even as he said that, his eyes narrowed as he swore he saw something with black wings flicker in his vision. A crow? Perhaps, but there was something in the air, a rather familiar scent. Flexing his hand, he held it out in preparation to create and grasp his blade.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! What were the odds?!

She had pulled every remaining string she had access to to bring that girl over as quickly as possible and called in every favor to bring three dozen subordinates to assist her with any complications, finding these loaners to be the absolute bottom of the barrel, and suddenly He was right there in her way again?!

She couldn't wait, the wounds were not healing and her 'support' would only be here for the day before departing. She literally could not afford to wait and scheme in her preferred method. She had to kill that girl now, steal Twilight Healing and get the hell out.

Quickly pointing to half her temporary subordinates, she had them wait by the door to capture the girl and kill her bodyguard (or at least try to). She provided them her entire stash of Holy Water, barrels of it. She doubted it would kill her target, but it should weaken him significantly.

The others, she had join her in an adjacent chamber. There was...a method, forbidden, but not forgotten that would allow her to restore her power, enhance it even. It would burn every last bridge she had, but she would survive, she had always survived, and would do so again.

One way or the other, none of these weaklings were getting out of this alive.

To bad she hadn't looked under the bandages, she might have noticed something very wrong.

Angels, fallen or not, don't bleed black.

Xxxxxxxx

Frowning, Rias Gremory looked down at her left hand. It was itching, it was itching rather badly on one side. Raising it up to scratch at the itch, she glared as the itching sensation moved as she rotated her hand, but remained in the same cardinal direction. As one born in an environment steeped in magic, Rias did not believe in coincidence. That hand of hers was the one with the new mark on her hand that had appeared after obtaining her pawn.

Experimentally, she discretely began a small series of tests moving her hand in various directions, noting each time that while the hand moved, the location of the itch did so as well to match whatever location it was originating from. Her frown deepened as the itch became more and more incessant, growing in intensity from irritating to mildly painful.

Standing up, and inevitably drawing attention to herself, Rias announced, "Sensei, I'm afraid I'm not feeling well." That got her teacher to blink, before nodding his head.

"Oh, Gremory-san? Ah, well, if you're feeling sick, then by all means head to the nurses station." After all, the girl was one of the best students in school with a flawless attendance record (or so they all thought). If she suddenly said she felt ill, then by all means, let the girl go. "Do you think you'll need help?" The teacher asked as he noticed her starting to go a bit pale and sweating.

Yes, she was definitely not looking well at all.

"Ah, could I have Akeno help me out?" Rias asked 'innocently'.

"No problem. Himejima-san, if you please."

"Of course," a dark haired girl replied standing up. She calmly walked up to Rias Gremory's side before the two left the room. No one saw them begin whispering furiously even as the door shut, no one felt the urge to suddenly check in on the two to make sure that they made it to the nurse, and no one saw two black winged figures flying up into the sky from the roof towards some distant locale.

xxxxxx

They were in there, he could tell long before he could see what was inside the church, or, what passed for a church. He noted all too ominously that all holy markings were gone form the building, some ripped out rather violently. One, two, no, make that three dozen of them in there. That many of those 'angel' lookalikes, but more importantly, SHE was in there. That creature that had dealt him several fatal blows.

"_We need to go."_ he said, placing his hand on her shoulder

"_Eh_?" she looked at him in confusion, _"But this is where I'm assigned."_

"_There's things in there_." He replied grimly. "_Things that kill humans._"

"_But, that is the house of the Lord," _The nun insisted innocently.

"_Not anymore._" He stood in front of her, summoning his blade into his hand. He heard her begin to to protest again, but he had no time for such things. His senses were pushed to their limits as he honed in on figures pressing their faces to the windows. He saw them catch sight of him, with a blade held at the ready.

"They're onto us! Get them!" A roar shouted from the building. Half of the estimated number burst out of the building, shattering wood and glass as they barged through. Heedless of reason or any form of tactics besides blitzing, they came at him.

"Trace On." the man uttered as he flooded his body with power. His legs were faster, his arm was stronger, his hearing sharper, and his vision was clearer. Looking back to the nun he yelled out, "Run, I'll deal with them!" With that, he charged, the ground exploding under his feet.

He remembered now what had happened yesterday with clarity. He remembered how these things fought, how they maneuvered, and how they died. They had speed on their side and the ability to summon spears but only limited to the amount of power they possessed, and above all, they were as fragile as humans. The biggest advantage they had was flight, something he now knew how to counter.

However, these ones chose not to fly high above him, choosing to move just barely above ground at all if they weren't simply running on the ground. It was almost a complete surprise to both parties when three of the fallen angels died with the first two swings of his sword.

"What?!" One of the fallen angels cried out.

"Yaaaaaah!" was the resounding roar that heralded its death. A deadly swing of a beautiful sword, the angel fell to the ground without a head upon its shoulders.

Even as the man continued his assault and began slashing through his opponents like a farmer through a wheat field, he couldn't help but be in awe. What was up with this? It was like butchering humans. Did these creatures not know how to fight or something? Compared to the four he had fought earlier, these ones were weak. The only attack that had even a chance to harm him was that wave of liquid they unleashed on him. Said liquid had only hit his right arm for no effect whatsoever as he evaded by ducking underneath another of these 'angel' creatures before cleaving the creature in half.

"Oh god. Oh God Oh God!" A cry for the lord they had abandoned came upon them dying as they fell in heaps.

Spears of light bloomed in the sky attempting to impale the one human in the midst, but either missed or were deflected with almost contemptuous ease. He wasn't protecting anyone this time. The girl was a good distance off, out of sight completely from this. As a man with more in common with a sword than a person, the loss of the deadweight was more than enough for him.

And so he continued to to kill.

The first dozen were dead in far too little time, and only then did the remaining six attempt to fly out of his reach. The two that flew highest found themselves impaled by flying swords. The next highest were yanked backwards into their companions below them causing them to all crash to the ground. It was only when they hit the ground that the pain registered on their legs. A strange nail like weapon attached to chains had shot out and impaled their limbs before the human had fished them back.

The Fallen Angels didn't have time to contemplate anything more before the man was upon their dogpile, slashing and stabbing each and every one of them with a cold gleam in his eyes. Creatures that had lived centuries died against a man not even into his third decade of life.

"Well, I knew they wouldn't last against you,"A familiar female voice spoke up. Turning to the origin of the voice, the man gazed upon Raynare lazily flaying towards him, "but I didn't think they were _that_ weak." She gave a 'cute' sigh and shake of her head. "Good help is truly hard to find these days."

"I am the bone of my sword." was his only reply.

"You know, I do believe you said that before." Raynare pointed out in mild confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?" Maybe he meant 'bane' of his sword or something. Honestly, it was plain strange, even to one who had lived for centuries.

He just continued to glared at her. He didn't hate her, for **hate** is a form of love and fear. He felt neither of those things about her. What was there to fear about her? What was there to love about her? He **loathed** her, loathed her like he did roaches. She was nothing more than a pesky **bug** that took far too much effort to **kill**. Yes, she had killed him, but the circumstances back then and at this current time were as different as day and night.

"Born from Fire, Filled with Steel."

Inside him, in a place that was no place, great gears began spinning faster and faster. Sparks of fire rose faster from the ground while drops of molten metal fell from the sky like rain.

_S-_

"I am made of a thousand blades-"

And upon that hill within that place that was no place, gold and black blazed for a moment, straining in endless agony for a task that would never be finished. Steel and swords rattled atop that hill while the great gears hovering in the air groaned as though moving against a great force even while spinning faster and faster.

_Shirou-_

"-broken and forged ever anew"

But the cracks in the hill, those dark and evil cracks were not supposed to be there. Those cracks, those weaknesses in the prison could not hold back what lay inside, and from them black mud began leaking out. Small trickles at first making tiny streams, but the amount leaking was getting larger by the moment.

_-I can't-_

"Untouched-" His words choked in his throat. A great ache hits him, unlike anything he has ever felt for a long time. He tried to form the words he needed again, but found he could not ever mouth words as a wave came upon him.

And with the outpouring of the mud came consequences. That which was strong became cracked. That which was mighty gave in. That which was the core of the man was corrupted. Memories began to burn away and black veins began to bleed darkness.

_-stop it_

And he did scream.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Where is he?" Rias muttered, her eyes darting from left to right. She knew the newest member of her peerage was in trouble. Somehow, that mark on her hand was letting her know that he was getting hurt, or at least getting involved in something, but she couldn't figure out where exactly. The 'itch' on her hand was not being all that helpful.

While it pointed in a rough direction of where he was, Rias found it was giving only the vaguest of indications of where her pawn was and then hand waved, if such a term could be applied, off any indications of distance. Specifics on even where her pawn was didn't help much as weaving side to side only made sure the 'itch' kept pointing in one direction without narrowing down angles beyond about sixty five degrees.

It was like being told that her pawn was 'in front of her' and then left up to her to figure out everything else from there. Redundant and unhelpful in other words to describe what her hand was telling her.

If only there was some sort of sign of where he was to speed up the search. Some..beacon of some kind or explosion to help her out. If only something like that would happen.

…

…

…

Seriously, she had kind of that would work.

…

…

Any time now.

…

Please?

…

Dammit.

xxxxxx

His mind **burned**, it burned like throwing himself into a volcano. **Pain** and **agony** were his world in its entirety, driving him to the brink of **madness**, sanity's requiem itself. His screams made even Raynare hesitate for a moment, her self posing even as she prepared to reveal her surprise was halted by the strange development. She had seen those black veins crawl up him in her previous fight with the man, but this was different. The veins were leaking now, trailing something dark across his skin, burning it as the liquid slowly crawled down his face and shoulder.

The biggest, and most notable change was the veins encircling his left eye had penetrated the socket turning the orb completely black. If he could see out of that, she'd be surprised. Well, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he was going to just kneel there for her, then she'd just get rid of him while she had the chance.

"All that work, and this is what happens?" She asked aloud as she summoned a spear of light in her hands. "Well, at least you'll be dead, and then I can go after that girl." Floating warily down towards him, she began her attempt to impale him.

But, even as the pain blinded his eyes and burned out all sound from his head, the man still remained unbowed. Some inhuman will kept him going, a drive that refused to let things like 'agony' get in the way. It was all he had left, it was all that he needed. To save a life, to fulfill his one remaining desire, he'd keep going even if his head were ripped off and his soul shattered.

As her spear neared the 'helpless' man kneeling before her, he shot forward faster than he had ever displayed before resulting in a fist connecting with her guts, sending her straight into a wall and through it.

"Geh!" Reynare hissed in agony. How the hell did a newborn devil move that fast? A knight piece perhaps? Damned good affinity with the piece, that one. Still, how had he hit her while still screaming in pain? That...that just made no sense. What was he?

"No more." The man hissed, staggering to his feet. The black veins kept pulsing and leaking on his face, but at least they weren't spreading at the moment. That was something of great importance at the moment, but he did not notice, nor would he truly have felt any sense of care at the recklessness.

"That's it!" Raynare roared as she burst out of the building to fly high above the sky. "Behold!" from her back sprouted two additional sets of black wings to her original set. But, unlike the clean a beautiful set she originally possessed, these two new sets were diseased, misshapen, and malformed. Still, there was no denying the insane amount of spears of light appearing behind her. The whole area dimmed from the blockage of sunlight coming from the fallen angel.

And standing underneath this potential barrage, he couldn't reach anymore. He couldn't reach any further, he wasn't strong enough. He wasn't ready, but he needed more, he needed MORE! Too many had already died. Not another one. Not. One. More. It was too much. It was too much! He had died too many times without saving anyone. Not this one, not this innocent girl.

So he stopped trying to call, he stopped trying to become a sword.

Instead, he would be a conduit.

"So human, any last words?" Raynare mocked him even as she began concentrating her power directly towards the man. But, he was not there, not mentally anyways.

A task he had not done in years came back to him, hot molten lava pouring down his spine with reckless abandonment. His sensations burning away into nothing but fire and pain, but with it came power. It burned. It burned. It burned so much it felt as though his body was replaced with magma, but it what he needed. He did not notice, he did not care that his back glowed pure green from artificial circuits, he did not care that he was burning himself alive in the process.

"Rho Aias" In front of him bloomed two pink petals, a pale shadow of what it should have been, but he burned. He burned far too much to bring forth the rest of it.

It was, of course, not his fault what was happening on the side. He was far too occupied with his pain and his target. He had thought the girl was safe, he had thought there was no other enemies left behind. In a way he was correct. He had dealt with the others effectively, but as they were not human, a fatal blow can sometimes take a while to fully end one.

Like that one fallen angel that had lost his hips and everything below. A stubborn and malicious creature gazing upon a girl that was attempting to save another dying Fallen Angel for her own selfless reasons. A creature filled with spite and fear in equal measure and losing strength and coordination fast.

xxxxxxx

Behind his twin petaled shield, he withstood a storm of spears, each of them aimed with deadly precision against him. Yet, each of them failed to penetrate beyond those petals. As expected, though this 'angel' creature could fire off barrage after barrage of spears, her abilities were weak. Granted, they were filled with holy power, but was still too little for him.

"Take this!" the creature roared again as she sent a new barrage at him. "Ah hahaha, how long can you withstand my new power?" It seemed to not dawn on her that her attacks were completely ineffective. Then again, she wasn't as...rational as she had been last time. She seemed rather unhinged. Something was interfering with her thoughts. It might have something to do with those new wings of hers.

Well, while summoning Rho Aias had taken nearly everything he had, there was still enough for one last attack. The timing would, as always, the critical point. Behind his conceptual shield, he was safe against this attack, but there was always the possibility of stronger attacks.

Indeed, as more and more barrages impacted upon the two petals, he noted that they were getting stronger, but only slightly. A sloped curve turning into a plateau the more she was trying to overpower him. And whilst she burned through her power, he carefully prepared himself for his one last shot behind his defense.

Wave after wave bombarded him, but his shield held out, leaving him untouched amongst the rain of death. Patiently he waited

It appeared that his opponent had finally figured out that his shield was far too strong for these kinds of attacks. She flew upwards, with a bit of staggering he noticed, taking a wave of spears with her. Before her, the spears began to merge, becoming a single massive spear the size of a great structural pillar.

Where she found the reserves for something like this he didn't want to know, didn't care to know. What he did know was that despite the pain he should be feeling, he was instead going numb. His spine was nearly finished, his nerves nearly burned up completely to do the insane. Worse, the pain from his left side had not disappeared. Whatever this... agony was going to him was eating him alive the more he channeled.

But, this had to be her strongest move. Thus there was something he could do.

Her flesh on his chest hardened, strengthened, grew stronger, grew sharper. Blades, his body was made of blades, born in fire filled with steel. It it bulged, it twisted, it began a twisting mess in his chest sending blinding agony to him, but he forced his way through it, as it became a ball jutting out of his chest and broke off with a shriek and rattle of metal tearing to hover beside his head.

It was not smooth as the original had been gifted to him by the dying magus, nor would it ever hope to be as powerful. But this was his, born of his flesh and blood, strong enough for the purpose at hand.

The most dangerous thing in the world isn't a monster, it isn't a fallen god, and it isn't some great beast formed solely to end all specified life. The most dangerous thing in the world is a human that has thrown away self preservation for the sake of something else, and before this fallen angel was a creature that had never possessed a shred of self preservation in its memory or base instinct.

"Take this!" Raynare cried out releasing every spear she had; but reality shifted. Though she had launched the barrage first, something happened. Time and space rewrote itself. Even as the barrage was launched, the ball floating beside his head shifted its shape from a ball to a blade.

From there, it was as if someone had pressed rewind on Raynare's attack. The blades that had been launching were now back to hovering behind Raynare about to be launched.

In that one critical moment when Raynare would have attacked, a blue streak of light shot forth, nailing the Fallen angel on her shoulder, blowing it away completely. "Eh?" Raynare gasped, losing control of her attack and falling to the ground like a downed bird, her unfired spears of light shattering as she fell.

On the ground waiting for her with a charcoal black right hand and a half destroyed abdomen, damaged from using that attack, he smiled grimly. "Not bad."

Launching himself forward, he swung his leg for a great kick to Raynare's shattered side before she even hit the ground. Even as she bounced from the attack, another kick slammed her back down. A third kick nailed her head disorienting her before a fourth kick to her guts sent her flying away again. It was then she had time to notice that somewhere in there she had been impaled in the chest by a purple dagger with a red jewel on the end of its hilt.

It didn't mean a thing to her until she saw her opponent close in far too fast for a mere human or even a mid-level demon to pull off with a drawn back arm glowing pure green that she saw what he was going to do. But, just because she could see the attack didn't mean she could evade it. Time seemed to almost slow down as she saw him bring that fist of his forward in perfect timing to her uncontrolled flight.

Closer and closer it came and it finally then in that last moment that she realized what was so strange about this fight. He hadn't been affected by the holy water in the slightest, crosses and holy icons caused him no pain, the spears of light only did physical damage without any lingering effects beyond what getting impaled by a spear would do.

There was only one reason why this was happening.

"You're not-" her observation was cut off as the fist connected with the dagger. A single foreign word that sounded like German was spoken by her enemy and then it happened. She could feel the flow of power moving through her as her insides suddenly and violent burst apart. Her organs, her bones, her muscle, and finally her skin all gone within her abdomen and chest.

Whatever he had done had killed her as surely as if he had cut her head off.

It was with almost..anticlimactic when she crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. Unable to move while her face was planted to the ground, she could only gaze through one eye to see that her opponent was staggering over towards her. In his hand was that same blade that had butchered the others, that magnificent and deadly blade now raised for the killing blow.

Then it swung down, a beautiful arc of that blade cleaving her head from her body without a hint of resistance. In those last moments before darkness claimed her, she swore she saw something standing beside that man as he fell backwards, something beautiful and terrible in equal measure glowing black and gold. She swore she saw this terrible, lovely thing gaze upon that man with some sort of expression, both pained and full of pride in equal measure.

And she watched it gaze upon her with pure contempt.

But then, right on the edge of life and death. In that one instant before the light dimmed from her eyes, she saw something in that arm, black and terrible to behold, and it was coming to eat her. If she could, she would have screamed.

Raynare, once belonging to the Heavenly Choir, fallen from grace for having tasted the forbidden, now lay upon the same ground as the 'lowly humans', never to rise again.

xxxxxxxxxx

Gazing upon the sky, red turning to black in the late afternoon, he felt nothing. Neither happiness nor sadness, he just existed, and barely at that. His spine was gone, his nerves shriveled and burned. It had been reckless, it had been insane to even attempt to pull that off in the midst of combat, but he had done it anyways heedless of the consequences, like so many other choices he had made in his life.

"_Mr. Emiya"_ A familiar voice spoke up quietly. He couldn't turn his head, the nerves connecting to the muscles were gone. By he knew it was Asia's voice. "_Are you alright_?"

"_Yes_." He said hoarsely.

"..._Liar_."

He couldn't help but smile at that, he never was a good liar. It was almost a miracle that he had ever been able to hide his status back then, to go throughout his childhood without giving away that he was a magus. Then again, he hadn't been a very good Magus either, so it might have canceled out the lies and the hiding.

"_How bad is it?_" Asia asked him.

"_I destroyed my spine and burned up most of the nerves in my body._" He admitted only to be rewarded with a small gasp.

"_Why?"_

"_Because I wanted to save you." _He replied. He'd do it again and again and again if he had to. He heard a small sniffle come from the small nun, but at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had saved at least one person in his life. It was then he felt it, a warmth spreading through him. He thought, at first, that it was just the feeling of pure joy his father had once possessed when his father had saved him.

But then he noticed, the warmth was spreading, moving across his body. He gaining feeling back. How? Ah! That thing had declared that the nun possessed some sort of healing ability. But every healing magic he had ever heard of had always been considered inferior to modern medicine. Yet, his nerves were being restored. How?

"_Asia? Is this your doing?"_

"_Yes_," she informed him, voice sounding strained. "_You saved me, so I should save you."_

"_I see._" Closing his eyes, he let her work in peace as he smiled. "_Thank you._" So this, this was that sensation he craved so much. This pure joy he had seen his father posses back then and the smiles that the others had when they had given their lives to save him.

Finally, after so long, so very very long he could feel that happiness.

He must have blacked out for a bit as he felt like he had been restored, or at least returned to a livable state. _"Asia?" _He called out. He tried to open his eyes, but they weren't responding. He just felt too tired. Too much had gone on in the past two days, more than anything he had gone through in years. Not since...not since the war.

"_Asia, is it done?"_ Focusing, he noticed a weight on his chest. Ah! Perhaps she had fallen asleep. Raising his right arm, he attempted to stroke her head, a simple gesture of thanks.

He missed.

Instead, his hand touched her back, only for it to freeze. Her back, her back was missing cloth, missing skin, missing muscle. He was touching bone and blood. She was horrifically damaged. She had been healing him while having this kind of injury?

"_Asia_?" He called out even as his hand slid up her back towards her head. With shaking hands, he placed his fingers gently on her neck and checked her pulse.

Nothing.

"Why?" He spoke so softly he barely heard it himself even as his soul cried in agony, "Why can't I save anyone?" He wrapped his good arm around her head in a semblance of a hug. Every time, every time he tried to save someone he failed. Was there, was there no way for him to accomplish that dream?

Why did many others have to give their lives that he might live?

With anguish, he found himself being pulled back into darkness, his body unable to withstand for any longer after such a grueling fight and healing. It was almost a comfort to be unconscious. A cold comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. Even as his conscious faded, he swore, for just the briefest of moments that he heard Rin yelling at him again.

"You Stupid Idio-!"

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"You Stupid Idiot! What the Hell do you think you're doing getting yourself hurt once more!?" Rias Gremory roared at wayward pawn, her bright red hair somehow flowing in a nonexistent breeze, defying gravity itself and making her look ten times bigger than she actually was. "I leave you alone for a few hours and you go and do this again?!" She was mad, no, _Furious_ at the sight around her. At least a dozen dead Fallen Angels, that same Fallen Angel from yesterday as well, blood and ruined outfits once more (where did he find that exact match?) and a devastated landscape.

Forget her brother's words this morning, she wasn't going to leave his side until she gave him a piece of her mind. If she had to, she'd chain him to bed and place a paralyzing spell upon him to keep him there in case she blinked. A few hours, she had only been gone for a few hours. What the Hell could cause him to end up in this same result in a measly few hours.?

"But who is this?" Rias wondered aloud as she gazed upon the mauled nun laying on her pawn. The Church and the Devils were mortal enemies that endlessly sought to weaken the other in an endless cold war.

It was clear that there was only a little bit of time left before the nun was beyond any power in this world, but there was a sensation about her. It came from those rings of hers. Healing property if Rias had to place the feeling. She was interrupted by the familiar feeling of a Devil's teleportation spell. Turning around, she beheld the sight of her brother and his wife Grayfia appearing.

"Nii-san?" she blinked, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't think there's anyone within ten miles who who didn't sense that fight." Her brother said while raising his arm to point out several black wings of fallen angels, and even a single pure angel with distinctive white wings off in the distance, who all scattered as soon as two of the deadliest of Devils appeared. Her brother then 'casually' looked over at the girl laying on the downed pawn. "Huh, Asia Agento. I wonder why the possessor of Twilight Healing is doing in Japan."

"You know her nii-san?"

"Sure, she's a bit infamous. She used to be the church's best healer, but then she was branded a witch after healing a Devil and was then kicked out." Her brother told her as though he had always known about her, rather than furiously researched about her throughout the encounter with this mysterious man. Unlike the male, this girl wasn't a ghost, but had an actual history that could be looked up and seemed like a good addition for any peerage, like say...his little sister's.

Just mention her possessing a good Sacred Gear, add in a bit of a sad story to tug at his little sister's heart and- oh, there she goes, pulling out her last bishop piece. One of these days, he'd get an award for this kind of stuff.

He noted out of the side of his eye that his wife and his little sister's 'Queen' Akeno were giving him 'the look'. Shrugging slightly despite being caught, he made a small gesture to his sister.

This was her choice, she could opt to not resurrect Asia if she desired, but she had chosen this path. Unlike certain other individuals who seemed to make it a mission in life to cause Rias to gain gray hairs early, Asia's change from human to devil went smoothly without incident. Seeing that everything was in order, Sirzechs and Grayfia left Rias alone with her Queen and her two new peerage, knowing the they would shortly return back to the manor.

From there, it was probably going to take a while to inform the girl Asia about the sudden changes that would go on through her life. Honestly, the past twenty four hours had been far too tiring for everyone involved. Tomorrow had better be a slower day, he still hadn't gotten any sleep today, nor would he until he filled out a few more forms.

Up to, and including a clean up crew for the mess that man had left back there.

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Laying on the ground where she had fallen, Raynare's body, left untouched and unwatched, began melting. It started from her earlier wounds and worked its way across her body, leaving not a speck of her untouched. Black necrosis spreading on flesh and bone, puffing up and breaking down like corrosion upon metal before her body liquified, becoming black mud to be absorbed by the earth. The grass shriveled and died whenever it touched the mud, while the very ground became poisoned.

Quietly appearing from the air, Azazel approached the strange mass that was quickly vanishing in the afternoon.

"How fascinating," the fallen angel remarked. The other fallen angels hadn't undergone this metamorphosis, so why was this one affected?

"Sir," another fallen angel descended nervously. "Should you really be out here without a guard?" Even if he wasn't the current governor-general, he was still an integral member of the government of the Fallen Angels. In many ways, he was even more powerful than the current governor.

"It's fine, its fine." Azazel waved off as he pulled out a few test tube vials and syringes from his coat pocket. Ever the scientist, he was prepared for any usual or interesting subject material to come before him. With a calm precision, he collected several samples of the black material before it vanished into the ground.

"Fascinating, its dissolves most materials via corrosion." He noted on his glass and plastic vials began, plastic breaking down faster than the glass. "I'll have to test which materials can hold it for decent time." He muttered to himself even as he placed the vials inside a larger container. He'd have to move quickly lest he be touched by this strange substance. Truly fascinating, whatever this was.

"Sir, we need to leave." the other fallen angel urged. "Remaining here much longer will attract others."

"Fine, fine." Azazel gave a small huff of annoyance. "just let me collect a few more samples. In the meantime, I want the rest of the bodies gathered up before the clean up crews arrive to dispose of the bodies." Pulling out a few more vials, he began gathering dead grass and poisoned earth while the bodies were teleported away. As soon as everything was collected, Azazel headed off towards his laboratory.

Whatever was going on here had just gotten ever more interesting. If there was something guaranteed to summon Azazel from his labs, it was something interesting and new. Perhaps he would have to have a few interviews with this 'Subject B' sooner than he thought.

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He lay there, sleeping deeper than he has slept in many years. Unmoving, and unaware he gives himself over to the void, free of both dreams and nightmares to rest away the aches and pains. Though his real body resides elsewhere, here in this place that is no place, he rests upon the hill where his fate was, is, and will always be determined. Here, upon the one geological discrepancy in an otherwise barren and empty land, his soul recovers.

_Shirou_

As ever, gold and black resides near him, planted to the ground. Unmoving, unshaken, this presence resides forever in this place watching over everything here, helpless to do more. But, firmness and gentleness make up the core of this thing, standing beside him against all that would claim what is not theirs. His life, his fate, his soul, all of it belonged to no one besides that which resided here. Bound forever, they are, until time and death shall take him.

_I will protect you._

For it is inevitable. All that lives must die, all that has a beginning will have an ending. Such is the decree of existence. Nothing is immortal, nothing is eternal, despite whatever lies the gods would whisper in tempted ears. All things will have their brief moments in the light before becoming snuffed out and consumed by the dark. One day, he will fall.

_Always_

But it is not today.

_Because I-_

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Next Time:

_Flying free as could be, _

_a bird dropped down from the sky_

_to land with a hop and a skip_

_in front of a dog's eye_

_'Come away with me'_

_the bird did cry_

_'I shall have much to teach thee_

_How to laugh, to sing, to fly!'_

_But the dog shook his head _

_and said with a firm reply_

_'I don't understand you little bird,_

_why not give my language a try.'_

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Author's note:

I will throw this out and swear by it till hell freezes over into our world, I HATE fanfictions's formatting set up. it keeps erasing things and altering the layout on drunken whims. I've had to re-edit this chapter three times because it keeps shifting things around after getting posted

I originally had like five to seven more pages worth of conversation between Shirou and Asia in the initial meeting. It was...painful to both write and read as I was trying to punctuate the fact that these two don't have good social skills. As you may have noticed, I cut out a lot of the dialogue and moved the story along. Egh, well that was a bit of a waste of time, but frankly having so many 'ums', 'ahs', and the occasional stutter didn't add squat to the story in the slightest.

Ah well, as you can see I have followed canon of DxD... kinda. The problem is I need to, at least for a while. I intend for Shirou to get close to death a lot, he's very squishy with that gimp arm of his, even if he does have a higher pain tolerance. Asia is really necessary if I want to continue poking fun at the old meme 'People die when they're killed.' with some form of plausibility. At the same time I've hinted rather strongly at a sudden problem Shirou now has with Rias' ignorance but I'll discuss that over the next two chapters.

Hough, I have to say, Asia has a Cinderella complex, she really truly does. She's got the power to heal, but she let others decide her fate when all she did was give into a moment's kindness (which the church is supposed to advocate and deliberately molded her to focus on). Kicked out of the church, she is then manipulated away from her home country rather than go out on her own and begin healing others without the church regulating her. She could have done much, changed the world if she wanted, but she instead chose to follow her fate until her 'prince charming' comes along to 'save' her.

As I've gone along researching the universes for this fic, I noticed that there is a surprising lack of detail the whole DxD verse is given. Much of it is just skimmed over with a real lack of world building. Heck, I don't even know the name of the city the series is based in and I've been looking it up on every source I can find. All I know is that there's a church on the outskirts of the city, a traditional temple on a hill surrounded by trees, a river running through the city, a few tall buildings, a park no one really goes to, traditional homes in one area while western homes in another, a forest outside the city, and a high school known as Kuoh Academy.

Seriously, change the high school and add a beach/port and I think I just described Fuyuki. Its very tempting, I swear to god, it is very tempting to do more than just allude to the symmetry. Feel free to share your thoughts on that, but know I will not be bringing in things like Kaleido Illya. Someone else is already doing that, and he's going with a completely different tone than I am.

Back on topic, Highschool DxD focuses on fan service due to it coming mostly from the perception of Issei, who as you may have noticed is still going through puberty without the concepts of restraint or focus, but there is a rich back story if one looks carefully.

The angels, devils, and fallen angels are all still devastated after the great war. Then the devil's population was then nearly cut in half again with the war over the government. The Angel's can't reproduce so have to make due with turning humans into pseudo angels who are all clearly not as powerful as 'real' angels while all of them are slowly becoming Fallen. And somewhere in all that mess the Fallen Angels have the smallest population with an unknown number of defections to Khaos (because someone couldn't spell Chaos with a 'C' for some reason).

Basically all three sides are actually on the verge of extinction. Does that not make things interesting for back story? Does this not make things a great deal darker in tone than it comes out in canon? I'd like to think so.

I'd like to go through things a little differently then a lot of the other writers have and see a bit more into the minds of others. Bear with me please while we slowly get to wherever we're going. Drop a review if you wish and while I get some sleep then get back to writing.


End file.
